I Want: Little Dreamers
by AYangThang
Summary: Blake and Weiss are new parents, trying to navigate family life with three little ones. Yang's living in Vale with her boyfriend, and Ruby has her own set of problems. With their own lives to lead, families to raise, and obstacles to overcome, they'll need each other more than ever before. (Disregard Vol 3's ending. Rated for language and romance. No lemons.)
1. Chapter 1

**EDIT FOR CHAPTER 1 as of August 7th, 2018:** This chapter had undergone a re-write. New content has been added. Expect an edit for Chapter 2 to be posted in an hour.

 **AYangThang:** Almost any story in the "I Want" series can be picked up without reading any other stories in the universe. I take the time and effort to refresh and spin a proper light on pertinent plot points as they come up, and each story carries its own individual storyline as well. However, there are distinct family trees relative to the timeline, so if you have chosen to bypass a story for any reason, you may find yourself wondering about the greater universe. In my profile, I've made a list of families, and other pertinent information regarding character relationships.

I'd also like to remind everyone that this universe disregards key elements in RWBY Volume 3 and beyond, seeing as this universe was being worked on well before Volume 4 even released.

 **I Want: Little Dreamers  
Chapter 1**

When the woman seated at the table opened the unmarked journal, she took a breath. The pen in her hand making small squiggles in the top right corner of her page. She laughed to herself. She had carried the small eccentricity throughout her life. For some strange reason, she found it was easier to write in a journal that was no longer pristine. The more she dirtied it, the more she could personalize it, and make it her own.

After doodling some very basic shapes, her pen took flight across the page. The ink filling in words across the blank lines.

 _Old habits die hard. It seems as though I've written thousands of these little notes over the years, jotting down my thoughts as they came to me. Most of them ended up in the trash, burned, or otherwise gotten rid of. I didn't need them anymore. Time makes many things unimportant, but, time can also do the opposite. It can adapt, it can breed sentimentality. It can cradle messages of those we leave behind._

 _This journal is the only proof I need of that. Each page a snapshot of the things I wish to convey. So, here I am, once again, jotting down my thoughts. This time, though, it's not for my sake._

 _It's for yours._

 _Although the weather is chilly in Atlas, the three of you know nothing of the biting chill in the air. You know only the warmth of the blankets, the protective embrace of your mother and myself. You're too young to know the sort of family you were born into. Or the burden your bloodline brings down upon you. Part of me wishes that you would never know, but that's impossible._

 _Thankfully, for now you live in innocence. Every new day, you each learn a little something more. Ironically enough, so do I, and I don't make that statement lightly._

 _For example, you taught me that trying to keep an individual baby book for all three of you would be impossible. You've made it abundantly clear that I'll have very little time to myself. If it's not one thing, it's another, and the days move by swiftly without my noticing. I never expected time to slip away from my fingers like this, but, I suppose that's ultimately the struggle of any parent._

 _Time slips away from you too, after all, and with each passing moment just as fleeting as the last, I hope that you cling dearly to your youth. It will be gone far sooner than you know, so don't rush. Take your time, enjoy it, and don't try to wish it away._

 _Trust me, one day, you'll only wish you had it back._

 _I wonder if you'll even read this as you grow older. The idle fear occurs to me that one day, this may just be kept up on a shelf, collecting dust. I wonder if my thoughts will even matter to you at all. Though, by then I fully expect these pages to have yellowed age. My greatest wish as of right now, is that one day, far in the future, you'll read this. I don't know why exactly I want that, it's hard to explain._

 _I just do._

 _When I'm gone, and the world has finished shaping you into the people that you will no doubt become, I hope that you will look back on these pages. That you will see the memories etched here, and know without a shadow of a doubt that you will always be loved._

 _That, I believe, is the greatest significance you will find in these words. I hope, no matter what, it reaches you well._

 _From your mother with love,  
Blake Belladonna._

* * *

Finley, Bianca, and Wycliff, the newest additions to the Schnee family, debuted in the local news exactly one month after they were born. In the handful of weeks following the announcement, it had been an unrelenting media firestorm. They monopolized the front page of every newspaper, and had reporters speculating for hours on local debate channels. Remnant wide news outlets were also in a tizzy, stirring up any sort of coverage on the topic that they could get their hands on.

To make matters worse, a few weeks after that, Weiss and Blake signed brand new paperwork for the SDC. Faunus could now, legally purchase SDC stocks, an action that garnered Weiss harsh criticism from atlesian elite. Lastly, Weiss named Finley as the heir to the company. That final announcement demanded even more attention, the likes of which had only been rivaled by Weiss in her youth.

That was a time when naming a female heir, the second to be born at that, was complete and total blasphemy.

To put matters simply, the people of Atlas were gawking at the famous Schnee family once again. Some called it a sign of the times. Others were repulsed by the idea of a Faunus inheriting the company. Stranger still were those that were intrigued by the very notion that a Faunus could lead the SDC at all. Given Atlas's dark history, many theorized that a Faunus wouldn't even _want_ to run the company.

It was a hot topic of debate, and one that likely wouldn't end any time soon.

The cubs were now four months old, and to mark another monthly milestone, another article made headlines. Weiss Schnee, and her young heir taking center stage in the colored photograph. In another photo, Blake begrudgingly smiled for the camera as she stood behind Weiss and Finley. Then, a final photograph when the entire family completed the spread.

Blake swallowed hard as she looked at her children plastered across the front page of every news and media platform in Atlas. She was sure that it was no better in other kingdoms, with the media industry in an uproar over the Faunus youngsters. It wasn't every day that the leader and CEO of the Schnee Dust Company willingly opened her office to take interviews. Like her father before her, she a notoriously avoidant of the press.

Recently, though, Weiss had been bombarded with the mass media.

It seemed as if every day Weiss entertained some sort of press conference, interview, or social commentary. During those times Blake refused to comment. She even refused to come out of the mansion after a look out of the windows proved that the paparazzi often swarmed the front gates. All of them eagerly waiting to see the family in the flesh. A few of the more insane journalists climbed the gates only to be met with the full brunt of the SDC's security force.

All in all, it had been a taxing time within the household.

Blake had refused to allow any stranger near the babies, and until the big announcement, had only offered allowed one picture monthly. Each and every time, for some reason or another, it seemed to make front page news. Blake was curious to see what the media was saying about her children, but Weiss had done her best to keep the Faunus woman well away from all of the hullaballoo. Blake was just about to gawk at yet another photograph when the newspaper slipped from upwards from her hands and into the paper shredder.

The uniformly tattered pieces plunking into the recycling bin under the kitchen table.

Weis absently went back to her own reading. "Don't look at that filth." She murmured around her tea cup.

"Aren't you in the least bit curious as to what's being said?" Blake asked, watching as her mate shook her head. In fact, to Blake's dismay, she continued to eat her morning breakfast unperturbed.

Her blue eyed gaze remained strictly on the stock exchange, ignoring any gossip that she happened to scan by. "No." Weiss replied distractedly. "What they say is of no consequence to me. At least, not right now."

"Well, it's a huge concern to me." Blake said as she sighed at the shredded paper. "I was reading that…"

"Well then, perhaps you should endeavor to rectify your curiosity." Weiss said, always in a foul mood when work related topics graced her breakfast table uninvited. The somewhat calculated statement lacked cruelty. Weiss still felt a pang of guilt all the same. It wasn't what Blake wanted, or needed to hear. In an attempt to soothe the tense air, she instead offered a suggestion. "Blake, the library has plenty of books, and you have yet to make a true dent in the reading materials."

"I read books to relax."

"Precisely my point. You could certainly stand to do just that."

"I can't… You know how critical your naysayers have been, and the older our children get, the more vocal the outcries of disapproval have been." Blake protested. "What if they haven't been well received by the media? What if they hate them?"

"That's a running theme as it is."

"Weiss, be serious about this."

Weiss felt a headache approaching. A long and agitated sigh left her lips. "Trust me when I say that I am. I've considered all of it very carefully."

"And?"

"I've decided not to dwell on the media for now." Weiss replied, turning the page of her morning paper. "It isn't as if babies can get into trouble or cause a political scandal. The media has no real reason to hate them."

"That doesn't mean anything." Blake chided. "The rumor mill could be running rampant for all we know."

"That isn't my concern, either." Weiss said, folding up the stock pages and setting it aside. "I'll be worried once the children are old enough to make reputations for themselves, but not a moment beforehand. There isn't any point. Even the SDC's publicist assures me that there's no reason to trifle over the media at this time."

"But, there will be time later?" Blake shook her head. "I refuse to believe that you haven't searched every last inch of the media coverage for any bad press."

"If you're so sure of that, then why on Remnant are you so worried?" Weiss asked as she finished off the rest of her tea. "No, don't answer that. I doubt I'd be able to soothe your rampant paranoia on the topic anyway." She stood from her chair, kissing Blake on the lips in passing before grabbing the pristine white coat of her business suit that had been draped over the back of the dinning chair. "I have three meetings at corporate today that I can't reschedule, so you'll have to keep yourself occupied some other way."

"Weiss, tell me this, have you looked into it?" Blake asked her.

"I refuse to dignify that with an answer. You won't be satisfied either way." Weiss said with a smirk. "Regardless, public relations are not your concern as of right now. You insisted you didn't want a governess around the house because we should raise the children ourselves. Correct?"

Blake nodded. "I did say that, yes."

"Therefore, for now your place is in the home, not the office."

"Weiss..."

"No, Blake, I'm going to stand firm on this." Weiss said, her tone soft but demanding all the same. "Unless I need you to sign off on something, or ask I you for input, I want your focus to be entirely on household matters."

"If we didn't have three cubs that keep my hands full on a daily basis, I'd take that as an insult." Blake muttered.

"But we _do_ have three of them, and you refuse the hired help." Weiss shot back. "It's not an insult, dear, it's fact."

"I know, Weiss." Blake couldn't help but feel as if that wasn't a good enough contribution.

"You have enough to worry about around the house. Keep your nose out of the media. If you truly find yourself without something to do, keep Ruby busy. Get her out of the house for a while, or something."

Blake cocked her head to the side. "She should be plenty busy. I thought she was helping Pyrrha up to speed on her new position."

"You'd think that, but Ruby's still very bored without Sun around." A few small beeps came from her scroll and the white haired woman sighed. "Now I have to go to work, if you want to continue bickering over this lunacy, it'll have to be over lunch."

At this, Blake simply rolled her eyes as she watched her wife retreat from the dining hall, her scroll in hand as she barked something into the receiver. Weiss pretended to have a very self-important attitude which always sent her secretaries scurrying around like terrified field mice. If only they knew the truth, they' be far less intimidated. The Faunus cursed softly, ears flattening down in aggravation of her own.

Blake missed her old SDC security uniform, and the luxuries that came along with it. Deep down, she knew Weiss was right. She even sincerely agreed with the sentiment. Her place was in the home, and three very young children were enough to worry about.

That didn't make Blake relax any less. She reached for her scroll. Her fingers clicking first news outlet she could think of. She found it, and all of its companions thereafter blocked.

"Dammit, Weiss..."

* * *

There weren't many televisions in the household.

Weiss had long ago learned that keeping too many of them around inhibited the dynamics in the household. Scrolls could be used to pull up programming if and when it might be needed. Anything beyond that was addressed with a minimalist approach. There was a theater room, of course, but often to was left dusty and unused. Sometimes, Weiss would ask a television to be brought out from storage and wheeled into the room of her liking, but that was also rare.

Beyond that, televisions simply _weren't_ left sitting around in common areas.

Ruby, of course binge-watched television. She kept one in her room for those indulgent occasions. Yang had one too, though she used it less often than her younger sister. It still sat in her old room, likely collecting dust with the rest of her left-behind belongings. Winter's room also had a television, but it was so old, that it was obvious that Winter likely only kept it out of habit. Lastly, there was a small one that Weiss kept in her office. She used it strictly for work related purposes.

If there was one thing Weiss knew that her father had gotten right in his life, it was the ability to maintain stable, loving, marriage.

It was perhaps his one true accomplishment in his life. The only one she felt worth praising. The one element worth emulating as best as she could, or so Weiss had decided when navigating the contours of her own family dynamic. Blake had not been pleased when Weiss had outright banned the idea of a television in their bedroom. She had even accused the subject to be rooted strictly in paranoia.

Still, the avid book reader wasn't being neglected her most beloved hobby. Therefore, Blake put up with it, irksome though it was.

That didn't mean, however, that she didn't peep on her scroll when she thought Weiss wasn't looking. Weiss equally pretended not to know of Blake's little escapades, even though the browser history, and the monthly bills, showed exactly how much date usage Blake's scroll consumed at any given time. The wordless compromise was one of many, and both were content to occasionally bend the rules.

Weiss, however, had taken the banning of the media in the household to an entirely new extreme after becoming a parent. Blake found her scroll had even more limited access than usual. Although they'd already argued about it a few times, Weiss wasn't about to budge. Blake had learned to get creative about defying her wife, without truly crossing any hard boundaries.

"We shouldn't be doing this." Ruby said as she buried herself in her jacket. "If Weiss finds out about this, she's going to kill me."

"You make it sound like I'm doing something terrible. There's nothing wrong with a little fresh air." Blake said over her shoulder, pulling the hood more tightly around her face. It was far too cold to be wandering the newsstands while Weiss was away at work. Putting down one gossip magazines, she reached for another. "You know I like to stay current on events."

"And we couldn't have just reset the scroll connections, why?"

"If you truly want to get murdered, rummage through her desk for the passwords. You'll have to break the locks. Only Yang and Weiss have keys." Blake said, amber eyes lifting up from behind the pages. "Contrary to popular belief, even I don't go fiddling through her personal desk drawers. The ones with locks on them are off limits, even to me."

"Why not?" Ruby asked. "Yang used to do it all the time."

Blake smirked then, but it wasn't sarcastic, or even happy. It was the pitying kind of quirk in her lips. "Yang isn't her Faunus spouse, that's why."

"Uh, Blake, that doesn't make any sense."

"Before I even moved into the house, I was told _explicitly_ , not to go fooling around in her desk at home. She told me it was for my own good, and there were things that I didn't need to see. Yang even corroborated the statement."

"Why not? What's so bad that you can't go in them?"

"I can only begin to imagine, but you have to remember, Weiss grew up in a world of bloodshed."

"It's kind of hard to forget that." Ruby agreed.

"A lot of people she knew were killed by the White Fang." Blake fought with herself hard at first, trying to decide if she should explain the matter or not, finally she continued. "There are things in that desk. The problem is, they're the hallmarks of racism and bigotry."

"Then why keep them?"

"They're the only things Weiss has left of those family members." Blake merely sighed then. "She's just trying to protect us both, while still cherishing the people she knew and loved. I can't fault her for that."

Blake cleared her throat then, sideswiping away all of the unpleasantness with an extension of her hand. She grabbed something else to read. "Anyway, that's not the main reason why we're out here. When I decided to become a stay a home parent, I was also told explicitly not to bury my nose in my scroll when it came to work related media. That also includes family coverage."

"See, then I know we shouldn't be out here."

The Faunus merely grinned. "However, Weiss never said that I couldn't go retrieve my usual reading. She knows what lengths I go to. After all, at one time I was the one in charge of security." Blake murmured under her breath before returning her gaze to the page. "Anyway, she just doesn't want it in the house. I can respect that, so long as she can respect that I'm going to be reading outside of the house."

"You guys are weird." Ruby muttered. "What's it matter where you read the news?"

Blake closed and put away the useless tabloid before shrugging. Giving up her search, at least for the time being. "Would you want to be raised around that kind of negativity? Knowing the whole world is looking at you, judging you?" Blake hated admitting it, but she knew exactly why Weiss didn't want that sort of thing around the house. "It's bad enough she has to know every detail. In her mind, her family shouldn't have to."

"It's going to get to them eventually..." Ruby trailed off with a frown.

"What she's doing isn't malicious, Ruby." Blake said gently. "She's just trying to separate our public and private lives. When she comes home, she wants it to be to her family. She doesn't want to walk in the door and be faced with more work related drama. As much as I don't like it, it's best to leave the media at the door…I just wish it wasn't so hard sometimes."

Her watch beeped, and her ears perked up. She had only been away from the household for half an hour, but it was already far too long for her liking. It was time to go back home, where she was sure Pyrrha had her children well protected. They were probably still even sleeping. Even so, she felt the instinctual urge to go back home to be with her children, just to be absolutely sure.

"Come on, Ruby." Blake said. "Let's go home."

* * *

It was late that evening when the family unified and became whole again. It had become normal for Weiss to keep long hours. The white haired woman had a habit of returning from work appearing more than a little frazzled. Tonight, she was not alone, her older sister followed closely behind.

Winter Schnee rarely showed up uninvited anywhere, but when she did, it was normally at the behest of someone driving the woman crazy.

This instance was no different. In spite of the time, Winter stayed for dinner and spoke to Weiss at great length. The two of them locked away in the home office that Weiss insisted on using for such matters. It was only when they were finished that Winter took the time to relax along with the family. The woman even spent a short time holding her obviously cranky niece and nephews before heading off back to Atlas Academy. There she had an extra bed, and a workstation. Both she used regularly.

Blake had kept a wide space between herself and Weiss, mostly because she was more than slightly annoyed at having her scroll so heavily restricted. Even if it was for her own good, something that almost all of her friends agreed upon unanimously, she still had to bite her tongue. There wasn't a kind word to say about the matter, so she rather not say anything at all.

Even if she understood why, her emotions were harder to handle.

To pass the time, and to cool her ire, the Faunus woman spent a quiet few hours curled up next to a nearby window, reading in the dim light. Blake held her daughter close. Bianca, the only girl in the litter of three, let loose a big yawn. Dark tuffs of black hair stuck out of the blanket she was wrapped in, and blue eyes had only intensified over time. She was unlike her brothers who sported Blake's deep golden gaze, just as Ruby had predicted they would.

As luck would have it, Ruby had won a sizable betting pool for her prediction.

Blake thought on that idly, smiling down at the little one. A small mewl escaped from the baby's lips, a testament to her Faunus heritage. Protective arms adjusted the child wordlessly as she began to fuss, and the baby girl nuzzled into the comfort, basking in it for all that it was worth.

"You don't think she's hungry, do you?" The curious question held an ulterior motive as the white haired woman looked up from her own task at hand.

Blake didn't even bother averting her gaze from her book, but let a small smile show, regardless. "No. It's not that." She turned the page and shushed her little girl. Deft fingers slipping between the folds of the fabric, gently rubbing the fur covered ears concealed beneath. This quieted the child, her purrs soft and gentle as her eyes began to close. "You'll have your chance to bond with them during mealtime later, Weiss, I promise."

A sigh permeated the air, followed soon after by the clicking of a laptop. "You say this, but none of them seem willing to take a bottle without screeching. It's like a last ditch resort. I hate that."

"Would you want to suck on rubber to get your meals?" Blake asked before chuckling mildly at the disgusted look smearing across her wife's face. "I certainly wouldn't."

"Touché."

"I'm surprised the boys haven't moved." Blake replied, looking up at the bedding that Weiss sat in, both of her sons were happy to curl up, one on each side of their other parent. "Winter must have really tuckered them out when she came by."

"Not that there's anything tiring about being held and cuddled for an hour or two." Weiss said. "It wasn't as if she stayed long enough for a proper visit."

"She did say she would be back for another visit later in the week." Blake recalled.

"It's nice that she's tutoring at the academy briefly, but she'll be sent out on assignment soon enough. Ironwood keeps her busy." The tapping of her keys stopped and she closed the laptop, setting it off to the side, along with her scroll. Her reading glasses for fine print came next, and their removal marked the end of a long business day. "Winter did bring something by though."

"Oh?"

Weiss produced a written piece of parchment from within a briefcase she kept at her side. "A formal letter from my father." She explained. "He wishes to speak with me about something."

"Something that will eventually lead to an argument, I'm guessing."

"So goes my foregone conclusion." Weiss said airily. "It's an invitation for tea and chess. We haven't done that in years. Now without a predetermined formally. Anyway, I will have to make the time to see him."

"What do you think he wants now?" Blake asked, mildly defensive at the thought of her father-in-law. The white haired, aging man, was foul tempered as ever when it came to the SDC, and frankly put, Blake hated the man.

"He didn't explain himself to Winter, so I don't have a clue." Having put away the work she had dragged home with her, she ever so carefully pried herself from the bedding, careful not to wake the sleeping Faunus youngsters at her side. "If I had to guess, I'd assume it has to do with the company." She said as she put away her supplies.

"That's not comforting."

"Expected though." Weiss replied, locking both the top and bottom half of the dutch door. "Frankly, I suspect it will be unpleasant to say the least." Once the nesting area was safely locked away from the rest of the household, she began shedding her clothes dumping them into the hamper one by one.

"And just when exactly are you going to take this 'tea and chess' with him?" Blake groused, ears flattening back distastefully.

"I was thinking I'd see him on Friday. At least, I would, assuming you won't claw his eyes out for my trouble." Weiss told her, seeing the snarl on Blake's lips as a low sound emitted. Curses mumbled through pure aggravation. "Oh, don't give me that look, I know you hate him."

"He hasn't even come by to meet his grandchildren."

"I thought you'd be happy about that." Clad in only a pair of panties, she reached for one of her favorite nightgowns at the back of the closet. "You really don't want him here."

"No, I don't." Blake admitted unapologetically.

"He feels the same, I'm sure." Weiss nodded, slipping her nightgown over her head, Weiss noticed the golden eyed gazed locked onto her form. Releasing her long white tendrils of hair from the gown, she then padded into the bathroom, raising her voice only a fraction. "If there's anything you've ever agreed upon, it's how much you truly hate each other. It's funny how that works, really."

Blake smirked to herself as Weiss got ready for bed, the bathroom door wide open as she went about her business. Blake couldn't see inside from her angle, but it was the mere idea that tickled her so greatly. It had taken Weiss a while to loosen up around the rest of her team, but Beacon had somehow managed to force her out of her shell. The less than lady like gargling of mouthwash alone only proved just how comfortable Weiss had become when it was only the two of them.

It might have been expected if it was any other person, but Weiss didn't have the luxury of growing up as a normal girl.

Her world had been lavished with riches, and devoid of emotional comforts. Blake could recall a time not all that long ago, when her mate would walk half way across Beacon's dormitory, if only it would keep her perfect, feminine image intact. Weiss Schnee held the Schnee Dust Company in the palm of her hand, but it was nice to know all that power hadn't jaded her.

In fact, it had done the opposite, granting the woman a shred of humility that she hadn't thought to have before rising to her father's station.

As a Faunus, she hated him on principle. As a person, she questioned his morals, and spat on his ethics. No matter how Blake felt about the man, she was bound to him as family. By human standards, the man was now her father-in-law. By Faunus standards, they should be think of each other as kinfolk. So even though she hated him, she knew she would have to drop the matter entirely.

Weiss exited the bathroom with her hairbrush in hand and presented it to Blake wordlessly.

It was first and foremost a piece offering. Secondly, it was a bonding ritual Blake absolutely loved to partake in. She set her book aside and took the brush, handing her daughter off to Weiss in the process. After her mate settled into a sitting position in front of her, Blake began to tend to the long lengths of white. They said nothing while basking in the comfort of this act. Blake taking pride in it. Offhandedly scent marking the woman's hair, and the nape of her neck. Feather soft kisses inviting Weiss to melt under the attention.

It felt right, as if everything was the way it should be.

"I want you to be happy." Blake told Weiss softly as she set the brush aside. "I'll do anything in my power to make that happen, even if it means putting up with your father."

"Then you can make me happy by turning the other cheek when I'm late to dinner tomorrow night."

"What, again?" Blake protested unhappily. "Weiss, you'll work yourself to the bone at this rate."

"I wish it could be avoided, but I have meetings." Weiss said as she leaned back to peck her wife on the lips. "I'll make it up to you, I promise."


	2. Chapter 2

**EDIT FOR CHAPTER 2 as of August 7** **th** **, 2018:** This story has undergone a re-write. New content has been added. Some has been slightly changed. So, it's highly recommended that you go back and re-read those chapters before continuing on with the fiction. Expect an edited chapter 3 to be posted within an hour.

 **Chapter 2**

 _As a family, we live in a very complicated world. You were born into money and power that stretches far beyond yourselves. For now, you haven't a clue of what your futures hold. Honestly, I don't either. The only thing I know for sure, is that I can already feel the static of change in the air. Good changes, but difficult ones, lay waiting ahead of all of us. I believe that it will carry into your futures as well._

 _All three of you will need to face it together._

 _I only hope that when the time comes, I will have raised you well enough to endure any and all adversity that you might face. For now though, you are safe. You don't need to worry about the rest of the world or the media. A time will come for that, but only later. Much, much, later._

 _Among the family, there is only one person in your lives that views you with distain. I cannot protect you from him. I'd like to, of course. Still, there's a fine line between protecting you and sheltering you. I'm still trying to discover that happy medium, sometimes I doubt I will. Truth be told though, on the subject of your grandfather, I wonder if it's distain at all. Sometimes, I think it might be something else._

 _Old memories, perhaps. Awful ones. If he told me that, I think I'd believe him. You see, Wilson Schnee isn't a bad man on principle._

 _You might hear rumors, but the matter is fragile. It's personal. You need to treat it that way. He's made a lot of mistakes, and he's done more terrible things than I can count. We don't see eye-to-eye on anything, and we always disagree to the point of argument. I wish I could provide you with a positive thing to say about the man, but my own history prevents that._

 _If anything, I understand his anger towards the Faunus._

 _It's a blind sort of rage, long burning, and unable to be tempered by time. I don't like him, I don't agree with him, but I do understand him. It doesn't excuse his actions, but it does explain them._

 _Honestly, turning the tables, if I went through what he had, I can't say I would have acted differently. I'd like to think I'm a better person, but I know that I'm not. Emotions aren't so black and white. Ideology is a fragile thing that can be shattered when struck in just the right manner._

 _When it comes to Wilson and I, we have a grudging tolerance of each other. I think that's the best anyone could ask for, but, don't let that hold you back._

 _He is your grandfather, the title alone worthy enough of its own consideration. I think it's important for you to form you own bond with him, or at the very least, your own conclusions of him as a person. I hope one day he will find his way to you, that he will come to know you, as I know you. That he will come to accept you, and love you, in his own asinine, backwards way._

 _Perhaps, you may even come to cherish him._

 _I realize that may be a bad thing. Strangely, I don't think it bad enough to dissuade you from him. That's also a bit worrisome, isn't it?_

 _ _Well, at the very least, I pray you do not grow to hate him. There's far too much negativity in the world outside of the household. I'd rather that it not linger inside too, but, only time will tell.__

 _From your mother with love,  
Blake Belladonna._

* * *

Friday came quickly as the affluent woman sat silently, carefully pondering the nature of her next move.

Fingers drifted idly over a chest piece, they lingered in the air. A moment's thought passed before those fingers swiftly pulled away again. She couldn't make a move too suddenly, because at the end of the day, this game of wit and war wasn't going to be won with the chess match.

Quite the contrary.

Only words would earn what she wished to achieve. Finally choosing her first move, solidifying it in her mind, her crystal blue eyes lifted from the white and black marble board. She hesitated to actually touch or move the finely carved piece, taking her time to gather her thoughts one last time. She had to be a careful tactician, a mindful opponent.

"You never did tell me why you wished to play chess." Weiss said conversationally, her words light, yet dry. She had upheaved her entire schedule for the convenience of this man. "In the middle of the afternoon, no less."

"I require a reason to spend time with my daughter?" Wilson asked with a frown.

"In your case?" Weiss nodded, ever the skeptic. She couldn't believe this was a social call. "Yes."

He noticed the imperious glint in her eyes. A frozen over expression that he knew all too well. "Interesting, I didn't get the memo." His fingers tented together, elbows leaning on the arms of his chair, he bent forward. Matching her gaze with one of his own came naturally. "I didn't realize I was so much of a burden to you."

Weiss seemed to think on that, her eyes narrowing, deep in her own thoughts. "Family is a burdensome thing." She said slowly. "I find that can also be rewarding. I've yet to decide what this occasion will be for me. A burden, or reward? It's too soon to tell."

The man grew quiet at this, aggravation thinning his lips. "I merely wished to see you, Weiss."

"Business?" Weiss shot back.

"Pleasure." Her father returned. "Is that somehow a problem?"

"No." Weiss said after a moment. "It's just odd, is all."

"What I find odd, is the fact that you've yet to make a single move in the entire time we've been sitting here." He sighed at length, as if that might encourage Weiss to actually begin the game. "All you've done is question my motivations. Are we going to play, or aren't we?"

"Color me skeptical, but, I have my doubts that this meeting is about a mere game. Is that really such a surprise?" She replied in kind, placing a finger over a white pawn on the board. She gave the man in front of her a long look. "If it is, it shouldn't be."

"No." He replied. "It isn't."

"I'm glad you can at least see the reason in that." She said, finally grasping hold of the piece to play the game as he requested. "Pawn to E-four."

"Perhaps I see reason in more than you give me credit for. I'd like to think so, at least." He told her then, before taking his own turn. "Pawn to E-five."

Weiss made her next move swiftly. "Knight to F-three."

He replied in kind. "Knight to C-six."

"You'll have to forgive me if this truly is an earnest visit. I simply find the matter strange. We haven't played together in years, at least not purely for the pleasure of it. In my adult life, there's always been some sort of implication attached." She told him, her candor subtle, easy on the ears. "Bishop to B-five."

"It has been a long time since we truly bonded. You were merely a child then. As you grew older, Weiss, I admit it became a chore." He shrugged, the memories fond, but tinged with their own failures. Old and dusty. "I didn't wish that on you."

"It couldn't be helped." Weiss said to him.

"No, it couldn't." He would have not had to bond with her as a single parent if her mother had survived. "Circumstances were unsatisfactory, but, I'd like to think I did the best I could. Sometimes, we do not get to choose the hands we are dealt." If he had been more capable of controlling her intellect and whims to his own tastes, they might have shared a deeper bond. He knew not to air that thought aloud. She would deny it, and thus, deny him. "Pawn to A-six."

"You're right." Weiss conceded, leaving it at that. "I never thanked you for those times properly. Perhaps I should have." She said looking to him once more. "Winter had just moved out, and although I didn't admit it then, I was lonely."

"It was a different time then. You didn't seem to hate me." He said softly.

"I didn't." She murmured, still angry with him. "I don't…" She corrected, but that seemed too forgiving. "It's complicated, as always. Bishop to A-four."

"I trust everything is well?" He asked in that flippant way of his. One that left no true question about it. "Knight to F-six."

"Quite." Weiss replied coldly. "You'd know this if only you'd visit the main house accordingly."

"I've been busy."

"You've been avoiding the inevitable."

"There is work that must be done."

"All of that work you speak of is my concern. It is mine alone. You don't _have_ to dabble in it, you _choose_ to."

"I choose to do the right thing, even if you fail to see that."

Weiss shook her head. "This entire game is a farce."

"It is not."

"It is." Weiss shot back, a newfound anger scorching the insides of her mouth. So many vicious thing she could say, at war with the thoughtful accusations she wanted to make. Everything she felt she needed to do was lost in the torrent. the logic resting betwixt and between the acid she wanted to spit at him. "It's a method in which to make yourself feel better. Little more."

She was so agitated at him, mind-numbingly so.

"You think that so long as you don't have to see the truth, you don't have to face the reality. Somewhere in that mind of yours, I can see the cogs turning. You think you can somehow make amends doing this." At this she toppled her pieces to indicate a forfeit. "You are my father, and that will never change. Whether or not I continue to view you as my family, however, rests entirely in your hands."

At this, Wilson sighed deeply. "I refuse to see how your poor choices as an adult must weigh down my conscience."

"That has nothing to do with it." She shot back. "My choices are my own, and I'm perfectly happy with them." Weiss leaned back in her chair. Her head tilted downward just enough for it to seem as if she was pondering something. Something that in spite of her deepest wishes, the cosmos would never tell her. "I know what I ask is difficult, but it is not unreasonable."

"I find that it is." Wilson replied, his voice stony.

"It's a matter of opinion. In mine, you simply haven't put forth an honest effort." Weiss told him, finding it nearly impossible to look this man in the eyes. She wanted to, but she hated what she saw there. "Frankly, I'm starting to doubt that you ever will."

"Faunus _irk_ me. They always have, they always will." He groused with no small amount of disgust. It was the nicest think he could say about them. "You know this."

"I also know that you hate being uninformed about anything." Weiss said, a somewhat dark smirk spreading across her features. "Curiosity stabs at you, and you cannot help but stick your nose into the matter. You may find Faunus irksome, but you cannot stand to relinquish control of what the SDC stands for at its core. Therefore, you will be compelled to know about your grandchildren, Faunus or not."

"Only because I worry for the choices you make."

"The company is well in hand. There's three of them, two of them males. Blake managed to achieve what my mother couldn't." Weiss told him. Honestly, there was a sinister sort of pride in that. "I have everything someone in my position could ever want. I have a willing spouse, a successful company, sons to carry the bloodline, a daughter to one day marry off, and the promise of more children in the future."

"Your greed will undo you."

"My greed?" Weiss laughed then. "It's not greedy to want them to be happy. I never said they'd be forced into matters that weren't to their liking. I'm not arrogant enough to believe I have that sort of power." Then, she licked her lips and looked at her father head on. "I'm not you."

"Must you be so completely insufferable?" Wilson huffed, his mustache ruffling along with the twist of his upper lip. "I merely inquired that things were going according to plan. I didn't ask the details. I didn't imply that you follow in my footsteps. God knows if you did, you'd warp them even more greatly than I warped you…what a sight that would be."

"You didn't ask me, because it's an unspoken demand. An implied inquisition you believe I'll give you, so long as you butter me up enough to do so." Weiss was not going to crumble that easily. "Well, I have news for you. If you want to know the future of the SDC, you must know the future of my children. You must know them, and be in their lives, come of that what it may."

"Weiss, be reasonable…"

"I am being as reasonable. At least, I'm being as reasonable to you, as you ever were to me." She told him harshly. "I expect your best efforts in this. I won't tolerate anything less, and that's simply how it will be."

* * *

Some day's Ruby accompanied Weiss to the office. Other days, it was Pyrrha.

The red headed former arena champion was still not sure about her duties as a head of security. Ruby was showing Pyrrha the complexities, but, neither of them were as skilled or as capable as Yang. Ruby lacked the charisma of her older sister. Though she was well respected, she hated the mounds of paperwork and being cooped up in the office. Ruby was too restless, too wild, to be chained down for the civilian qualities of life. Pyrrha had charisma, but she lacked Yang's devil-may-care attitude. Being the head of security permeated almost all aspects of life, and Pyrrha had not yet found a way to balance work and home.

The two comingled in her mind, fusing together like a sludge.

Late nights at the office meant Pyrrha often returned home to Jaune already being in his pajamas. Trying his best to get their young son to sleep, he often didn't greet her by the door. Her twin girls were sometimes waiting for her, but if they were, it was only for a passing moment. Jaune would normally be trying to usher them into their own baths and nightly routine.

Pyrrha understood that she wasn't the only one suffering. She was already an experienced parent, and had long ago come up with justifications for not being home. Hard work in of itself was a model for her children to emulate. Unlike Weiss, Pyrrha didn't feel the pangs of missing out quite as much. It was an old pain for her, it wasn't new, and it didn't stab at her heart quite as sharply as it did for Weiss.

They had dinner alone, as was sometimes customary.

Blake was locked away in the nesting area with the babies. Jaune had his hands full with bath time. Ruby was in the gym, fumbling her way through arm exercises. Sun and Zhu were likely with her. Although Pyrrha fully expected the routine, she didn't intend for it to hurt quite as much as it did. She sat down at the table, eating her salad idly. The meal failing to bring her the energy she sorely needed.

"One of these day's, you're going to learn that you don't have to be alert every waking hour, of every single day." Weiss replied, knowing that had once been a hard lesson for Blake to learn as well. "You're the head of security, you can delegate matters to other people. In fact, you should."

Pyrrha nodded quietly, but said nothing to that. She knew Weiss was correct, it made solid sense in her mind. Still, she couldn't seem to relax.

"Aren't you going to help Jaune?" Weiss asked offhandedly, trying once again to coax the redhead into talking.

"There isn't much to help him with." She said, forging manners entirely as she speared a slice of cucumber onto her fork and ate it. "Jaune is a very capable parent. Where I struggle, he succeeds. He would never need help with something as simple as bathing our son."

"Hmm, well, he never really was much of a huntsman. I suppose he found his true calling." Weiss agreed, realizing that she didn't entirely like the idea that he was better than Pyrrha at anything. "Does it bother you that he's a stay at home parent?"

Pyrrha's lips thinned in thought. "I'm not always sure."

"He is a very good father." Weiss told her. "He doesn't seem lazy about it, as most might assume."

"He's a better parent than I am, that's for sure." Pyrrha replied unhappily. "He even schools them from home. That's a task I'd never want to take on my shoulders. I'm amazed with his ability to get the girls to study at the table so willingly. They'll sit there for hours at a time, even after the lessons are though. Although, sometimes he does ply their studiousness with sweets." Then, Pyrrha frowned. "I still don't know if I completely agree with that."

"Honestly, I'd think of it as a salary." Weiss suggested.

"They're not employees, they're my daughters." Pyrrha lamented. "I have my expectations."

"Well, that's true, I suppose. However, if you want them to exceed expectation, I'd assume that would come with some sort of expense."

"Really? That's a shock coming from you." Pyrrha said. "Explain, if you would. You've intrigued me."

"Well, having Ruby as a partner taught me something." Weiss said thoughtfully. "I can hold myself to any expectation I want, because I will make my own motivations. However, I can't expect anyone to do an above average job on principle alone. I might expect something to be done, but, if I want it done diligently, I have to provide some sort of incentive." The white haired woman shrugged. "I think that ideology works for any situation, really."

Pyrrha nodded at this. "Perhaps…"

"The way I see it, if a few sweets boost a grade significantly, I'd say it's a price worth paying." Then, Weiss cleared her throat. "As someone who used to lure Ruby to Beacon's library with cookies, even I'm not above bribery. Sweets, at least in moderation, are harmless payments. They're active young girls, it's not as if they live unhealthy lives."

Pyrrha nodded, retuning her to salad one more. "I see your point. I just don't agree with it. Mind you, I was raised lovingly, but, I can't say that I was ever doted upon. I never wanted for anything, but I was also taught to never ask for anything beyond my means. I was never coddled either. Achievement was its own reward." Pyrrha sighed at length, realizing that was not the way the world worked. "Jaune's family functions quite differently."

"How so?" Weiss asked.

Pyrrha thought on that. "In every single way." She said, knowing it wasn't an understatement. "Jaune was doted upon, perhaps even spoiled a bit. His mother raised him to aspire beyond his means. His father, though a huntsman himself, isn't particularly strict. It's obvious to me why Jaune lacked crucial combat skills before Beacon, his father never took the time to properly mold him. Even as an adult, his family coddles him in ways I can't even imagine."

"It's hardly a surprise." Weiss replied calmly. "Jaune might not be a huntsmen of great renown, but as a man, he's never been one to avoid hard work. You could even say his father did mold him well. It was merely that, perhaps, he was trained to be a family man. If Jaune had taken a simple job in a city somewhere, I have no doubts he would have been a solid provider."

"You're right, of course." Pyrrha replied with a small smile. "Our methods simply clash at times. The girls have learned to seek out their father, knowing that he's more willing to give them a favorable reply. I won't lie though, it hurts sometimes, knowing that."

"They do come to you when it matters." Weiss released a slow breath. "At least you have a style with which to model yourselves from. They may be different, but they are complimentary. Blake and I, we lack even something that simple. Her parents died long ago, and my father…" The white haired woman didn't even need to finish that sentence.

"Weiss…" Pyrrha murmured, gaining the attention of her long time friend. "You're doing fine."

* * *

Atlas seasons were always chilly, the winter months snowy and summer months sloshy and wet. They lived in the frozen north, so it was to be expected. Still, the subzero temperatures chilled even those native to the polar climate. There were many times that people stayed inside their homes warming themselves by the fire. This was one such night, as an icy storm came rolling on by unexpectedly.

She hated the sounds of ice tinkling on the windows sharply, and so did the young Faunus cubs.

When Blake decided she wanted to be a mother, she had made a list of all the circumstances she might have to face. She liked to think of herself as prepared for anything and everything. Unfortunately, the best laid plans would never survive contact with an enemy, or in this case, her screeching daughter. The red-faced, angry baby wouldn't settle down for the life of her.

Bianca was more than a little irate, and the stress of the day was starting to mount, wearing her parents thin.

Weiss batted her long white hair out of her face with one flailing hand. Desperately, she tried to contend with her two sons who were more than happy to kick up a fuss right along with their sister. Weiss adjusted both of her sons, humming to them in an attempt to calm them down. It wasn't working, and finally, she sighed. "Blake, why is she still screaming?"

"It's probably the medication." She said, her own ears flat against her skull. "She hates regular ear drops, why would we think antibiotics would be any better?" Blake said as she fumbled with her scroll, texting the family doctor to vent her frustrations. It wasn't the first time one of the cubs had come down with an ear infection. It was however, the first time Bianca had ever had one. "Want to switch off?"

"Do you want her to scream even louder?" Weiss returned, wincing when one of her sons managed to get his clawed thumb embedded into the back of her hand. She cursed, carefully dislodging the sharp little nail from her skin. "Today was not the day to lose the bloody nail clippers."

"Point taken." Blake had tried everything she could think of. None of her usual methods for soothing her little girl were working in the slightest. "I know that it's probably just the medicine. There just isn't enough faunus friendly medication out there."

"Even if there were, I doubt she would respond well to it in the first place." Weiss said. "You certainly don't have a tolerance for medicine, either."

"No, I don't." Blake agreed. "Most Faunus don't."

"This might be a stupid question." Weiss prefaced, looking at her screaming child as she continued to rock her sons gently in her arms. "Are you sure she's not just being cranky for the sake of it? You've got quite the temper when you're ill with anything."

"Hell of a temper, if that's the case." Blake said as she ever so carefully checked the inside of all four of Bianca's ears. "Maybe something else is wrong. I should call Oobleck."

"Over an ear infection?" Weiss asked with an upraised eyebrow. "Isn't that a little bit of an overreaction?"

"What if it's something else? Look at her." Blake asked as her daughter screamed louder. "She's inconsolable, Weiss!"

Weiss pushed herself up from her position on the bedding, laying her sons down on the soft material. Realizing her wife was also about to lose her temper, she slowly started making her way over to Blake. "Okay, don't get upset. You can call Oobleck, and see if he'll fly out if I pay for the ticket." She could see the worry in Blake's eyes clear as day, and cursed herself for not being home more often once again. "In the meantime, give her to me, and I'll walk the house with her. I'll see if I can't get her to calm down."

"I don't know if I-"

"Blake" Weiss said again. "It's just the _hallway_ , not the mouth of a Grimm."

* * *

Ruby Rose sighed tiredly as she sat with her feet up, idly tapping away at her scroll. Weiss had skipped out on cookie night again. Ruby understood why, she could hear Bianca screaming from the hallways as Weiss paced back and forth. The older woman had begun singing softly, trying her best to get the little girl to calm down.

Ruby understood that Weiss was obviously very busy, but she missed her best friend.

It might have seemed childish. It was probably very selfish to feel left out and forgotten. Still, she just missed having someone to talk to. Someone who she could connect with….someone who wasn't her mate.

Ruby loved Sun dearly of course, she wouldn't have chosen to be with him otherwise. Yet, the advice she needed had to come from someone else. A _female_ someone else. Someone who might have a little bit of wisdom about intimacy. She had half a mind to call Yang, but nixed that idea quickly. Yang couldn't give her the kind of advice Ruby felt she needed.

Ruby thought about asking Pyrrha, but, they simply didn't discuss certain topics. Blake was the obvious choice, but Ruby bit her lip. It made her uncomfortable even thinking about asking Blake. She wanted to talk to Weiss. Her best friend. Her partner. The one person who might understand the matter.

A low hooting sound drew her attention to the monkey tailed boy who looked at her expectantly. The little Faunus boy grabbing at his tail as he looked at her. She smiled at him, and patted her lap. "Come here, Zhu." She told him, seeing his eagerness to so do. She pulled the blanket around the both of them, smirking to herself as he yawned tiredly.

The boy wasn't her own, but she cared for him as if he was. Her eyes drifted to the mantle, where the image of his birth mother sat. She allowed her gaze to linger in that quiet moment. Idly, she thought about Summer Rose, Octavia, and her own future as a huntress. She wondered if she was doing the right things, making the right choices. She had to believe she was, there was no other choice.

They would need to visit Octavia's grave again soon.


	3. Chapter 3

**EDIT FOR CHAPTER 3 as of August 7** **th** **, 2018:** This story has undergone a re-write of the first 6 chapters. New content has been added. Some has been slightly changed. So, it's highly recommended that you go back and re-read those chapters before continuing on with the fiction. Expect chapter 4 posted in an hour.

 **Chapter 3**

 _They say cat Faunus are meant to be able to handle large families. I'm beginning to wonder about that, though. Sometimes I wonder if I'm doing the right thing. If I'm being the attentive parent I should be. I wonder if I'm giving you all the attention you need, sometimes I think it may not be enough. Sometimes, I fear it's too much. They're pointless worries for now, if I'm realistic, I know that._

 _Sometimes, though, it's easy to get lost in negativity. There's an endless amount of little ways for a day to go horribly, horribly wrong. Put each one on top of the other, and you have a recipe for a disaster. Our days are like that more than I'd like. Then again, perhaps I'm being too critical of myself. Too critical of what I think should be normal, verses what is actually normal._

 _Maybe I'll always be like this, overthinking things the way that I do. It might not do me any good, but, sometimes that's just the way things are._

 _Being a mother is both fulfilling and exasperating. I wish I could better describe my thoughts on the subject, but it isn't so simple. You see, it's an ebb and flow. My thoughts constantly fluctuate with your moods. When you're happy, then I'm happy. When you refuse to sleep, then I spend my nights sleepless too. _Although you aren't aware of this, you three dictate our day down to the very hour.__

 _ _Each moment I spend with you is personal, unique, and I wouldn't have it any other way. _There is never a moment that I don't think of you with love…___

 _Sometimes it's a tired, crabby, somewhat annoyed love. However, it is love regardless of the circumstance. The same holds true for your mom, who seemed to be learning the hard way that babies cannot be reasoned with. Of course, that doesn't stop her from trying. That's endearing too, in it's own way._

 _Even now, Finley, though I doubt you'll ever remember this, you're kicking up a fuss over bottle feeding again. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. Wycliff, you're on my right clawing on my bathrobe. Bianca, you're to my left mewling. I think your ears are bothering you again. Faunus children with ears on top of their heads are so prone to ear infections it's astounding. You don't like the medicine either, so, there's that._

 _As for me, I'm sitting in the middle of this chaos, trying to jot down my thoughts in a cohesive manner. Take a guess as to how well that's working?_

 _This is an average evening in this household. I doubt it'll be subject to change any time soon. I'm alright with that. Even with the difficulties, and the stress, it's my own little piece of paradise. Don't ever think otherwise._

 _From your mother with love,  
Blake Belladonna._

* * *

Ruby dozed during the night, but she couldn't sleep restfully. She never slept well when Sun was away. Even if he wasn't out fighting Grimm anymore, she knew Vacuo could be dangerous. The people were generally friendly, but the SDC still had a great many enemies. Sun was at risk as a Faunus, working for the company by choice. He had a place of influence, and took pride in that.

Unlike many Faunus living in Atlas, he wasn't an SDC employee by default. He hadn't been forced into it by circumstance. The man had options, plenty of them.

He was educated, unlike many Faunus who weren't. He was strong, unlike some Faunus never taught to do battle with Grimm. He had all the right connections, in all the right places. a leg up in the world at large. All in all, Sun had opportunity laid before him on a silver platter, all he simple needed to do was put himself to work, and enjoy the benefits of a job well done.

To say some faunus, and even some humans, would be jealous of that would be the understatement of the centaury.

The weather was also a concern. Sand storms were unpredictable. Vacuo was his homeland, so he understood the dangers better than most. It was because he knew them so well, that he would be one of the first in the line of a danger if a storm were to strike. He had family there, friends, and he wouldn't dare leave them behind.

Sun wasn't the most well-to-do person on the face of Remnant either, making his position at the SDC an awkward one. The blonde man was probably bored out of his mind at the hotel room. Either that, or trying to deal with another ripped shirt. Ruby smiled to herself, thinking it was likely the latter. Sun was always so rough on his clothes. He hated shirts, particularly ones he had to button up.

Offering a few more lingering thoughts to her mate,Ruby sighed wistfully.

She needed something to keep her mind busy. With a bit of effort, she reached back for her scroll, returning to her handheld game. Zhu quietly watched. One eye open, one eye closed, as he cuddled into Ruby's chest. He was trying to lull himself to sleep, and she placed a kiss atop his head, smirking a little as she continued the online player against player matches.

Red lettering flashed across the screen as she lost, once again. She groaned under her breath. She missed the days when she ranked in the top numbers on the leaderboards. She's spent countless hours over the years playing to be the best. Now, she was lucky to fall someplace in the middle. She knew getting aggravated wouldn't do any good. Still, she couldn't help but feel despondent.

Ruby's hand ached from the echoes of her injury, and she flexed it idly as she set the scroll aside. The frostbite had healed completely, but the nerve damage in her fingers had already been done.

Grabbing for the bottle of aura enhancers, she swallowed one dryly without water. She didn't move from the sofa, she merely laid there, eyes closed in an attempt to center herself. She fell asleep that way, for an unknown amount of time.

"Ruby…Ruby, wake up…"

An indignant grunt later, she opened her eyes. An all too frazzled Weiss came into view. The woman held Finley in one arm, and mug of something warm in the other. "Weiss?" Ruby murmured more to herself than to the woman in front of her. "What time is it?"

"An ungodly hour. However, now that we're both awake, we should take breakfast, shouldn't we?" Weiss replied, gesturing to the maid that was tending a nearby metal cart.

The smell of rich hot chocolate touched her nose. A waft of warmed food followed soon after. Pancakes topped with powdered sugar, drizzled with syrup, and decorated with sliced strawberries awaited her, and Ruby smiled. "You didn't have to do that…"

"You didn't have to fall asleep in the living room, either." Weiss replied, only a twinge of guilt in her voice. Her eyes averted to her son, as if the distraction would make her next few words seem like a passing afterthought. "It was a fitful sleep at that."

"Was it?" Ruby asked, not even recalling a dream. "I didn't know."

"You never rest easy when Sun's away." Weiss said as she sat down and made herself comfortable. "Then again, something else has been troubling you lately. I have noticed, even if I haven't made ample time to discuss it with you."

"It's not a big deal…"

Weiss chose not to reprimand Ruby for the obvious lie. Instead, she changed subjects. "I have to be in the office early today. I want you home, I'll be taking Pyrrha with me instead. On that subject, Oobleck will be coming by later. I doubt you and I will find time to chat this evening." Weiss put her mug to her lips somewhat guiltily. "I had my hands full with Bianca last night, I'm sorry that things didn't go as planned."

"You don't have to apologize about that." Ruby said quietly, as she moved Zhu off of her lap, and tucking the blanket around him. Then she joined Weiss at the small glass table in the corner. "How's Bianca doing?"

"Typical ear infection, fever and all." Weiss sighed sleepily. "Oobleck warned us that they would be quite common after the children were born. Human infants have them, but with Faunus it's a guarantee. With young Faunus with ears as their defining trait, their ear canals travel up so high that fluid can collect in their ears. The infections should subside when they begin to eat upright."

"So, it's a waiting game then." Ruby nodded. "You know what the doctors always say. Treat the symptoms, come back if it gets worse. Sometimes I think we're lucky if we even get two weeks worth of antibiotics." she said as she looked over to Zhu. "Then again, as my family tells it, I was sick a lot as a baby too. Besides, I think everyone gets an ear infection or two."

Weiss nodded. "Naturally, I'd agree with you. Blake's worried though, and if a visit from Oobleck will calm her down, a ticket to Atlas is a small price to pay."

"Sounds like it…" She said, cutting into her pancakes, and taking a rather large bite of them. "You know, I never really thought about all the little things Blake does to take care of her own ears. Never really occurred to me, you know?"

"Ruby, you know I am not sitting here at five in the morning to enjoy the fading moonlight." Weiss said with an edge in her voice. Cautiously cutting to the core of the matter, whatever it was. "You had something you wanted to speak about."

"I do, but that's…" Ruby paused cutting into her pancakes. "You know, these are really good."

"Pancakes were not your chosen topic for discussion…"

"Yeah, you're right…" Ruby agreed. "I wanted some advice."

"Such as…?"

"Well, it's just…I mean…" Ruby trailed off with a somewhat bitter laugh. "Now that I think about it, it sounds stupid in my own head."

"Haven't we all endured moments of that?" Weiss deadpanned. "You should know by now there are no stupid questions between us. Not when they bother you so greatly."

Ruby nodded, but still seemed unsure. "Weiss, have you ever looked in the mirror and didn't like what reflected back at you?" Ruby asked uneasily, as if tasting the question upon her lips for the first time out loud. "Like, was there ever a time that you thought you were unattractive because of what you saw?"

The mug in her hand paused, lingering between the table and her lips as Weiss averted her gaze. "I think that goes without saying…" She finally said, lifting the mug to swig deeply from it. As if somehow that might fortify her staggering mind. "I don't think there's a woman alive who doesn't doubt herself at one point or another. Unfortunately, it comes with the territory."

"Not your body, Weiss." Ruby sighed with a firm shake of her head. "That isn't what I mean."

"Then, what do you mean?"

Your scars." Ruby said, watching as Weiss notably flinched. "Do you think the ones you have are ugly?"

On instinct Weiss lifted her fingers to her eye. They lingered over the slash mark that had never faded.

"No, Weiss, not _that_ one." Ruby muttered.

"If it is not the one plastered across my face, what scar are you implicitly asking about?"

"The surgical ones…" Ruby told her, as if those were somehow different. "The ones you didn't get from fighting."

Weiss seemed to think on this. "I suppose that depends…" She did have two long scars trailing up either side of her spine. Several back surgeries had indeed left their marks on her. "Unless I'm trying to gaze at them in the mirror, it's not as though I look at them. It's an effort just to do so. I did think myself unsightly, but, Blake quelled that rather quickly. It's amazing the sort of fears lovers can put to rest."

"And what if they don't?" Ruby pressed then. "And what if that's the problem?"

The concern in Weiss mounted. "You're going to have to elaborate on that…"

"Sun and I, we're mates now..."

"I'm well aware."

"That should be a huge comfort, but now I think about things I never really worried about before." Ruby began, poking absently at one of the strawberries on her plate. "He doesn't really like the idea of me getting a prostatic arm. I keep thinking, maybe he thinks the idea of a person even having one is gross, and he just won't tell me that." Ruby looked up to Weiss then. "What if he's not interested in me after that? What if he thinks I look gross and refuses to touch me?"

"I doubt that's his issue, Ruby."

"But you don't know that for sure."

Weiss balked at first. Her face contorting to stifle her humor. It was such an obviously paranoid question. Still, it was also no laughing matter. It was certainly too early for these sorts of pleasantries, and her sleep deprived mind ran amok with the hilarity of Ruby's implication. "Ruby, he's your mate." She said, as if that would somehow cure the entirety of Ruby's worries.

"That's why I'm worried, Weiss..."

"No...no, ruby's Sun's your mate." Weiss said with a small, gentle, laugh. "That's why it's _not_ a problem."

Weiss thought more carefully on that. In fact, the entire idea seemed absurd from the standpoint of a Faunus. Weiss would never be one herself, but, she liked to think that Blake had taught her the basics of Faunus mating well enough. At least, well enough when it came to humans, such as Ruby.

"There is absolutely nothing I can tell you. None of it would be the slightest bit helpful." Weiss told her. "What you need to do is talk to Sun. If that man's anything like Blake, which there's no question he is, then you'll no longer have doubts about that once you do."

"I don't know how to ask him…"

"Then eat enough sugar that you just blurt it out without thinking." Weiss sighed, reaching across the table, to take Ruby's injured hand into her own. "You've always had scars, Ruby. Astoundingly, to me and everyone around you, you've always worn them with pride. These shouldn't be any different."

"They feel different, though."

"I know." Weiss said with sympathy. "I want you to understand that of you do go through with the extensive surgeries, a prosthetic arm isn't going to change the way Sun feels about you. If anything, it will only speak more of the determination you have. The courage you find to live your life on your terms. That's a beautiful thing, Ruby, you can trust me on that."

They spent the rest of the early morning chatting idly about meaningless things until Weiss noticed that she needed to get ready for work. Then, Ruby dozed on the sofa again. Sometime during her slumber, Zhu crawled back into her lap, his small weight settling over her in an all too familiar way. Even though she felt that he was getting old enough to begin staying on his own, she admitted that she didn't know the depth of his mind, or his instinct to stay near a respected adult.

Besides, sleeping alone was sometimes an uncomfortable thing, independency or not.

* * *

It was late in the morning when Ruby roused once more on the cloudy day. Footfalls echoed in the large room, and her training kicked in. It wasn't the first time she'd been disturbed by one of the hired help. "Madam Rose, I do hate to be a burden, but I'm unsure of what I should do. Dr. Oobleck is here. Madam Belladonna has strict rules about household guests, however, so I am unsure of what to do. Should I send him up, or instruct him to wait?"

Ruby glanced towards the man in question. He looked frazzled, almost as though he hadn't expected the random visitor. Ruby merely smiled kindly at the Faunus who kept his eyes down low to the floor. The young and timid butler-in-training never used to do that before. Then again, a lot of things had changed when she became Sun's mate. The Faunus staff tended not to look directly at her, as if doing so would be a grave mistake.

She had tried to tell the staff not to worry so much, but it hadn't helped. Eventually, Ruby had learned to go with the flow.

"Blake's expecting him, so the sooner the better. You're probably right about her foul temper though." Ruby told him, stifling a yawn. "I doubt anyone slept last night. If you want, I can take Oobleck up to see Blake if you'd like. It's not like I'm doing anything anyway."

"If that is your wish, I shall leave it to you." The man bowed, exiting the room carefully as Ruby chuckled.

Shaking her head at the absurdity of it all, she pocketed her scroll and carefully placed Zhu on the sofa to continue sleeping. He opened his eyes to look at her, but she merely smiled. "I'll be back. Go to sleep." Rubbing the ruddy hair on his head did the trick, and his eyes slipped closed again.

Ruby slid Crescent Rose into its position at her lower back. Even if she couldn't battle with it, she hated to be without her beloved weapon, and wouldn't go anywhere without it. She headed for the main hall, and found Beacon's teacher waiting in the wings, his gear affixed to his back, and his luggage resting at his feet.

"Hey Professor." She greeted with a tired smile.

"That's doctor, Ruby." He reminded the younger woman as he cleaned his glasses. "Not that anyone takes the time to care."

"Mm." She agreed, merely letting her lip quirk in amusement. "Sorry about the confusion around here. You got here earlier than I think anyone expected. The maids aren't used to afternoon arrivals, and Blake has rules. She doesn't like to be bothered by the staff unless it's mealtime."

At this, the man shared her smirk. "She's still reluctant to allow her children out into the rest of the mansion, isn't she?"

"She'll come out sometimes, but we practically have to drag her."

"That sounds about right." The man nodded.

"I try not to let Weiss worry about it too much, either. Things have just been a bit hectic at work though, so, she hasn't been home as much as she wants to be." Ruby said, leading him through the hallways that he already knew. He visited so often that his appearance was hardly a surprise to security guards playing a card game in the corner by the front door. "Blake's getting better about letting some people into the nursery, so I think it's a halfway decent compromise."

"And how have you been?" He queried, eyes flicking to her hand, and the scars that he knew ran all the way up her arm, and over her shoulder. "It's rumored that you're still considering amputation in favor of a prosthetic arm."

"It's not even a question." Ruby told him.

"Really now?" Oobleck murmured thoughtfully. "I thought that you might take more time to consider every opportunity available. Atlas is very technologically advanced."

"Yeah, but there isn't really much to think about." Ruby told him, though they both knew it was a lie fabricated out of fear. Many of them still lingered underneath her chipper personality. "I'll be doing it once I'm healthy enough to undergo the operation, recovery, and rehab. I already have a module picked out. It's being manufactured as we speak, and I've added several requests for augments useful out in the field."

Oobleck nodded at that as he regarded her. "You know, Ruby, there are dust infused medications that can regrow and rejuvenate cells in the body."

"Those are highly experimental." She said to him, having already looked into it.

"When it comes to mechanics or dust in the medical field, everything has an experimental quality to it." Oobleck countered. "The question is a matter of degree. We can study the matter all we might like. Machines are imperfect, always in need of upgrades and spare parts. On the other hand, dust for cell mutation is unpredictable. Sometimes, it merely comes down to a best guess."

"Well, besides all of that, I'm allergic to dust in general." She shrugged. "I don't think I could take any medicine with dust inside of it."

"Almost all medicine has some form of dust composition in it, Ruby. You're allergic to dust that hasn't been refined into medical grade quality, but even the average run of the mill aura enhancers use dust as a primary ingredient."

"Still experimental." She told him. "Dust automated limbs are just more reliable. Besides, mine will attach at the shoulder, it'll be way more robust than my injured arm will ever be. If I plan to go out and fight Grimm again, I need to be in top shape. Weapon grade prosthetics are just the better option."

"So long as you've done your research properly, I suppose that's all I can ask for. Do be careful though, decisions such as these should never be taken lightly." Oobleck told her, leaving the matter aside. He wished there was something more he could do, but he came up short. "Should you ever need my assistance, Ruby, please give me a call."

Blake was grateful that Oobleck had made the journey as fast as he had. Her night had been sleepless, and her entire body sagged under the weight of her exhaustion.

The loud sound of mewling forced Blake to pin back her ears as she soothed her eldest son. He was hungry again and demanded to bed fed right that instant. It wasn't the most opportune time, but that seemed to be the running theme in her life at that moment. Sighing, she rolled her eyes. It wasn't anything Oobleck hadn't seen before anyway, and so she moved the bathrobe aside, allowing the baby to suckle.

Meanwhile, her focus remained on her daughter.

"So, what's the verdict?" Blake asked, her exhaustion clear in her voice, at war with her deeply festering concern.

Oobleck examined the feverish baby girl for a few moment longer. As the leading scientist in all things dust, the man had an intimate knowledge of its properties. He also knew well how dust fused on a biological level, and her children were the cause of such scientific advancements. Blake could count on one hand the number of people she trusted implicitly to fiddle around with her daughter's ears.

It was no wonder Oobleck made that list.

For all of his hyperactivity on missions, he was a careful man when doused in his methodical work. In fact, his calm demeanor never ceased to amaze Blake, no matter how often she managed to come across it during the length of her pregnancy and the ensuing visits after.

The green haired man finally came to a conclusion as he pushed his spectacles up the bridge of his nose. "As for her ear infection, they are not uncommon in Faunus with ears as their definitive trait. I've told you that before."

"You have." She said. "I'm sorry if this trip has been a bother."

"It's been nothing of the sort." He said thoughtfully. "Blake, you must understand, Faunus with ears on top of their head will undergo almost five times the ear related complications as other infants. You should come to expect them…but, you should be cautious and vigilant, always." Then he turned his attention back to Bianca. "Her ears are infected, yes, but I doubt that's the root cause of her problems. How well does she tolerate noise in general?"

"She's horrible about it, unless she's the one being loud." Blake shook her head. "Even when she's not sick, loud noises tend to bother her. Even relatively quiet sounds can send her into a screaming fit if they surprise her, which is easier to do with her than you might think."

Oobleck nodded. "Hmm, yes, I see." He took another look into her Faunus ears, and then her human ones, as if thinking deeply about something. "Did the family doctor suspect something abnormal?"

Blake looked down at her little girl, one hand reaching to smooth out her black tresses as gently as possible. "She wasn't sure. Midori's specialties have to do with human medicine, not Faunus. She can treat illness, but she's not an expert in Faunus related health. We weren't sure if this had to do with the dust exposure while she was in the womb or not."

Oobleck thought on this. "Well, I wouldn't be too concerned, even if it was. Faunus develop particularly acute senses. Dust could amplify those senses further. Frankly, it may just be something she'll need to get used to as she gets older. If it's just a matter of being startled, a set of noise dampening earplugs could help, but then you run the risk of more infections, so it's a double edged sword."

"There's nothing else we can do?"

"I'm afraid not." He replied simply. "You treat the infections as instructed, and take precautions when you can. That's about all you can do in a Faunus her age. More importantly, I was hoping to check in on Wycliff…he's not experience any difficulties is he?"

Blake just shrugged. "I know he can hear out of his Faunus ears, if that's what you're asking. He folds them back at abrupt sounds. As for his tail, well, I don't think we'll know about that until he starts to walk."

"Ah, yes, of course." Oobleck nodded "He can control it though, correct?"

"Well, he normally curls it up. I haven't seen him use it like an adult Faunus might, so I have no idea."

"So long as it's not dead weight." Oobleck told her, giving the smallest baby a glance over. "Given that his tail was a byproduct of dust in the womb, I was afraid he might not have any control over it at all." He picked up the little one in question, stripping the baby out of his diaper and his shirt, carefully running a thumb along the small child's spine to the base of the tail where black fur met pale skin. "Nothing seems out of alignment at a cursory glance. Continue to keep an eye on it. If a drastic problem with his spine does start to show, it's easier to remove his tail earlier in life than it is to do it later."

Blake visibly looked ill at the mere thought. "I'd rather not remove it at all."

"Neither would I." Oobleck told her as he redressed the child. "Fortunately, everything seems to be in proper working order, but you should definitely keep an eye on the matter. I'll write paperwork for Midori detailing the testing I want done at six, eight, and twelve months. Try not to worry yourself too much, so long as he's not in any obvious discomfort, and his spine stays in alignment, there's no real cause for concern."

"I'll keep that in mind." Blake murmured, biting on her lower lip. The obvious discomfort still lingering in her voice. "And the chances for concern in the future are…?"

"In recorded cases of dust mutation? Slim, very slim." Oobleck said to her, his voice gentle yet firm in the matter. "Now then, so long as that's been settled, Midori sent me the results of your latest tests as well. It seems as though the final particles of the dust have left your system. I have the paperwork here if you'd like to see it."

"So long as you have it." Blake shrugged. "I don't really understand all of that medical mumbo-jumbo."

"Indeed, well then, in regards to your aura, she wanted a second opinion. Sometime before I go back to Vale I would like to borrow her medical facilities to give you one more thorough examination, just to be sure that you are coming along as you should be as well."

At this woman rolled her eyes. "It never ends…"

* * *

There were few pleasures in life quite like being greeted at the door by an awaiting Ruby Rose. She was the affectionate sort, always had been, and she really couldn't be bothered to care who saw her flinging rose petals around thanks to her semblance. Though they often dissipated, there were times that her semblance was powerful enough that they didn't. This evening seemed like one such occurrence as one of the maids sighed, broom in hand to gather the settling petals.

"You're late." The short woman said against her mate's lips, not minding that his briefcase and duffle bag had landed on the floor loudly enough to send an echo through the sprawling hallway.

"Got caught up. didn't mean to be."

"I'd bet not." she said. "Was the weather bad?"

"Nah, flight was slow though."

"Always is."

"Yeah, but, at least window seats give me something to look at...and waiting around for my bag at customs wasn't as bad as it could have been. It was a long day, but it's over now, so it's all good." Sun admitted, as Ruby loosened his tie from around his neck, making short work of it. "Where's my boy at?"

"Down the hall watching Oobleck make harmless dust experiments." Ruby told him. "That man isn't happy unless he's causing some sort of reaction or another. I'm sure Zhu finds it entertaining."

"Entertaining enough to keep out of the bedroom for a solid hour?"

"Not if Zhu catches you."

"Damn." Sun murmured.

"He doesn't like it when you go away for work. I doubt you'll be able to pry him off of you." Ruby said knowingly, winding the tie around her fingers playfully before tugging it from beneath the collar of Sun's white shirt. A mustard stain cleverly hidden came to light, causing Ruby to smirk. "Then again, there's always tomorrow."

"There's always Blake too." Sun said. "Pawn him off for an hour, nice hot bubble bath, some together time…can't beat that, can you?"

"As enticing as that sounds, you'll have to guilt a different person into keeping an eye on him. Bianca has another ear infection, between her and the boys, Blake and Weiss have their hands full."

Sun visibly deflated as he bent down to gather his things. "Well, double damn. How about a carton of ice cream, and a movie we've seen a dozen times?"

Ruby smirked as Zhu came bounding down the hall. "Now that sounds awesome."

* * *

Weiss arrived home that night just as the evening light had begun to fade from the cloudy sky. Another icy rain was in store, and she had narrowly avoided the inhospitable travel conditions as she hung up her outerwear by the door. She was surprised to note that the living area just off of the entryway was being occupied as Blake sat among the soft glow of this aquatic tank that no longer harbored fish.

Instead, it had become an aquatic atrium, plant life and other aquatic creatures called the gentle waters home.

The only fish left in the house now lived happily in the indoor guarded that took up the mansion roof. The several ponds and pools providing an adequate place to house the fish. In the corner of the room, a single goldfish bowl sat on a small circular table, its lone resident swimming in a small gleeful circle around the tiny flecks of food that Blake deposited into the bowl, watching the yellow fish as though it were a snack.

Weiss cleared her throat gently. "It's rare to see you in here." She said softly, wondering why Blake wasn't readying the children for sleep.

"I was writing the checks." Blake replied, nodding over to where a single laptop sat open, several cards now fully stocked with lien waited to be distributed to the employees of the household. "Oobleck was kind enough to offer to look after them for a few hours, I didn't feel the urge to say no. Somehow, though I have no idea quite how it happened, Pyrrha's girls and Zhu ended up in the nesting area too…I didn't have the heart to forcefully remove them."

Weiss smirked at that. "Pyrrha's girls too? They're probably hanging off his every word."

"It's probably the first time they've ever had the undivided attention of a true huntsmen." Blake said with a small nod. "Not that I would ever forget that fact that we have our own licensees…"

"Loathe though I am to admit this, I'm no huntress Blake, and quite frankly, neither are you. We have our stories, sure. There was a time we'd take up arms with the best of them, but those days are gone, and, as times goes on, I become more content with that fact." She knelt down at the coffee table, fully ignoring the plush sofa right behind her. The piece of furniture was so rarely used, it was funny to think it was even there at all. "I see you've finally been answering those emails I asked you to send out…"

"Some of them." Blake noted. "I thought I'd have more time."

"Yes, well, I think we both know, that's not happening any time soon."

"We should really go upstairs and alleviate Oobleck from all of the children." Blake said, changing the topic.

Weiss rolled her eyes. "You go ahead if you feel the need. I'll finish up down here, and then join you."

"Can't you come up now?" Blake asked. "You've been gone all day."

Weiss wanted to. She really, really wanted to. She was even tempted to forgo the obvious responsibility looming in front of her. "I need to make a larger dent in this paperwork." She said, pointing to the open laptop. "I understand you've had your hands full, and that's why it isn't getting done, but it needs to be. After all, I'm the CEO, it's my job to ensure everything runs smoothly."

Blake couldn't deny it, so quietly she agreed. Giving Weiss a gentle kiss before going upstairs. She knew it then and there, she would be falling asleep that night alone. The only thing that softened that sad little truth was that she knew Weiss would be there smacking blindly at that the damn alarm clock in the morning.


	4. Chapter 4

**EDIT FOR CHAPTER 4 as of August 7** **th** **, 2018:** This story has undergone a re-write. New content has been added. Some has been slightly changed. So, it's highly recommended that you go back and re-read those chapters before continuing on with the fiction. Chapter 5 will be updated soon.

 **Chapter 4**

 _Another package came in the mail from your aunt today. This time it was formal attire._

 _There was a small powder blue dress for Bianca, and matching suits for the boys. The demotions fit perfectly. It was as if someone took a measuring tape to you three when I wasn't looking. There was also a recommendation for a professional photographer. I don't think she realizes that we already have one. Still, I appreciate the sentiment, it proves she thinks of you often, even when she can't be here._

 _Although I know it's a failing effort, I'm trying to raise you three with as minimal clutter as possible. I want you to enjoy the important things in life, and while I understand that Winter cannot grasp this concept, I do wish she would grasp that credit card of hers and put it away. You're barely four months old, you do not need all of these gifts. What you need, you have._

 _Weiss and I can easily provide for you, and there is no doubt that Winter knows this. We have just as much money, even more in fact, than she does._

 _ _Unfortunately for me, I also know why these elaborate expenditures are taking place. It all comes down to a matters of the heart.__

 _Your mom and your aunt tend to struggle with showing affection. They're very loving people, truly. Although, you might not ever know it at first glance. The problem is, they just aren't used to showing affection openly. They were never truly taught how. Buying gifts is the only way that Winter can express herself. I have a feeling that her role in your lives will begin to take shape as you get older. Until then, I'm forced to contend with her pocket book._

 _I've lost this battle, but I'll endeavor not to lose the war._

 _Although, that isn't to say she's been giving you gifts thoughtlessly. It seems she puts a great deal of consideration into each one._

 _For example, she has expressed a particular interest in you, Wycliff. Why she's so taken with you in particular, I've no idea. If I had to guess, it's likely because you're very willing to sit quietly in her arms for long lengths of time. Your siblings are not so tolerant or mild mannered. Your gifts contain a wide range of large baubles from her travels. She's also sent the beginnings of a coin collection._

 _I've been told that young boys of wealth often collect currencies that are no longer in print. Apparently they pass them around like trading cards. In these times when all of our currency resides on plastic cards, it's hard to imagine a time when precious metals were used instead. I wonder how interested you'll be in the hobby, but, time will tell._

 _Bianca, Winter saved a necklace for you. Something belonging to your grandmother. It's in safe keeping for now, but apparently it's an heirloom passed down to the first born daughter. Winter claims that she will never have children of her own, and wanted you to have it. You will receive it once you are old enough to cherish its significance._

 _She has also been sending small jars of finger paint, hoping to instill your love for the arts. I didn't finger paints came in some of these colors. An atlesian blue arrive the other day with the price tag pointedly ripped off. I dare to guess how much this shade might have cost her. Weiss refused to tell me. Anyway, you'll be allowed to have your paints when I'm sure you won't be compelled to eat them._

 _As for you, Finley, do not think you have been forgotten. You've received the beginnings of a coin collection, too. Winter has also sent you some carved figurines made of wood, which is another wealthy boy's collectible. Lastly, as the first born, Winter has been saying that she has an important gift for you. Something personal, apparently, having to do with the Schnee bloodline. She's still hard at work preparing it._

 _Winter brings it up in every package addressed to you, but I have no idea what it is. She was unclear, but Weiss seemed to understand her intentions perfectly. Honestly, with those two plotting, I don't know if I should be terrified or not._

 _From your mother with love,  
Blake Belladonna._

* * *

"Fucking alarm."

"I do hope you realize you sound worse than Yang when you curse."

"Hmm."

A sleepy, not to mention unhappy mew resulted from the hushed talking, and Blake looked down to witness her son looking up at her expectantly. Not even withholding her glare, she looked to Weiss. "This is your fault, you know."

"The same as every morning." Weiss admitted offering her wife a gentle kiss on the lips as if that might be repentance enough. Truth be told, she wasn't sorry at all, and Blake knew it.

Blake got to have time with the litter all day long, but Weiss wasn't so lucky. The early mornings were her time, and Weiss clung to those fleeting moments before dawn desperately. There was an unspeakable intimacy to be had at the early morning hours just after her alarm went off. Often, reluctant to extract herself from the warmth of the blankets, she lingered for a short time just to bask in the serenity brought to her by her resting family.

Eventually though, that alarm did make a racket, and the day would be forced to begin.

As usual, Weiss roused herself and padded into the bathroom for a quick shower. When she was done, she was normally greeted by Blake quietly nursing the youngsters. Long strands of white hair wrapped in a towel and still in her bathrobe, Weiss would see to their other needs. If anyone saw the CEO of the Schnee Dust Company adhere to her morning routine, they would have been flabbergasted.

Owner of the Schnee Dust Company or not, Weiss still took her pride in her own independency. She liked doing things for herself because she could. It never occurred to her to think otherwise. Squeamishness had been beaten out of her long before as a huntress. So, unpleasantness be damned, she accepted the good, the bad, and downright disgusting. After all, babies were messy little things. Prone to everything from spittle, poopy diapers, and everything in-between.

Weiss knew her blue blooded peers would have claimed such tasks were made for a servant of the household, crinkling their noses in disgust.

That was the life Weiss remembered. It was the maids that had tended to her needs in her earliest memories. They bathed her, dressed, her, brushed her hair and set it into beautiful styles. What little she could vaguely recall of her mother, the woman didn't bother with the unpleasant tasks of parenthood.

Her mother sung to her, read to her, and took up the joyous moments of childrearing.

It might have been the normality among bluebloods, but Weiss didn't want her children to have the same sort of dusty past. She outright refused the thought of it. She believed that Blake could use some hired help, of course. Weiss feared three demanding little ones would be too difficult for one woman alone. Although Blake was the perfect image of motherhood, Weiss could see that Blake was struggling to do everything on her own.

Weiss kept her arguments on the matter to herself. She knew her wife would not accept any help from any unrelated staff member. Blake had made it clear.

As she rocked Finley in her arms, Weiss let her gaze drift to Blake. The Faunus woman had Wycliff on the breast, the small boy eager for breakfast. Her wife's sleepy eyes were cracked open, her ears pointing in two separate directions in her disgruntled morning haze. If she could have smashed the scroll to forever silence the morning alarm, she obviously would have. It wasn't long before she started to doze.

Wycliff, still attached to his mother's breast, also doing the same.

Weiss kept her amusement to herself. Then, something uncanny happened. Finley sneezed, and while doing so, he made a snowflake appear from out of nowhere. It was almost impossible to imagine. Seeing it had Weiss rubbernecking at the sight. Gawking openly, she mentally replayed the event, trying to make sense of it.

Her son, barely two months old, sneezed, and a snowflake of aura manifested all on its own.

It was not the first indication of the Schnee semblance she had seen, but it was certainly a definitive one. It was only there for the tiniest moment, shattering the instant it plopped onto the blanket that swaddled him. Like a million little promises yet to be made in the murmurs of his future, that one snowflake meant his entire world. He couldn't possibly know, and that made the moment all the more special.

Those unassuming golden eyes of his wetting, tears started falling from him in earnest. Obviously, his aura had startled him, just as much as it had his mother.

Weiss found a ball of emotion lodged in her throat. Try as though she might, she couldn't swallow it down. Instead, a sob broke from her lips, a whole world of fears shattering around her in that very instant. It was as though she could breathe anew, in a way she hadn't even realized she needed. She palmed away her tears, she holding the surprised young baby in her arms closer still, as if it was even possible.

Shushing away his confused cries, and trying to quell her own emotions was not an easy task. Relief was an exhausting thing, crashing into her the way that it did. It left no room for a second wind, not with the first hints of his semblance coming into true and proper form. In some distant capacity, she wondered if this was the way her parents felt when she first displayed a hint to the powerful Schnee bloodline.

Somehow, she doubted it, and yet she could not squash down that faint hope all the same.

"Weiss?"

"Yes?"

"Are you…" She carefully adjusted the baby in her arms and fought off a yawn that interrupted her. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, I…" She said, though the thickness in her voice made it sound as though it was a lie. "I'm just..." She quietly cleared her throat, trying to rid herself of that stifling ball of emotion before she finally overcame it. "I'm fine." Weiss said again.

By this time, Blake had already repositioned her cubs in the bedding before making her way across the room. Thumbing away the tears dripping down her wife's face was the easy part, but finding a reason for them was much harder. "You don't look fine."

Weiss took a breath, leaning into the warm palm that rested against her cheek. She covered Blake's hand with one of her own, looking down at Finley once more. "I knew I had seen it before, but, not like this…I was afraid, Blake. I thought that his semblance would be stunted. Part of me is still so terrified of that, so seeing any indication of his semblance at all…" Weiss licked her lips, emotion threatening to swarm her heart all over again. "You don't understand what a relief it is…"

"Mmm." Blake sounded, her lips gently pecking Weiss on the forehead. "So long as relief is all it is. Try not to worry so much about nonsensical things. He's still your son, no matter how powerful his semblance might be."

* * *

There was a small café just on the outskirts of Atlas Academy. If Winter wasn't sent away for some sort of classified task, she generally took her tea-time there to socialize with faculty members, school benefactors, or even simply the general himself. Today, however, she took tea with Weiss, the two of them having to meet to discuss the dust provisions for the academy.

It was the banter that took place after that, which Weiss usually enjoyed.

Now though, she couldn't help but run the tip of her finger around her china teacup. Her sister watched the action, knowing it to be a somewhat nervous action. Her inquiry went unspoken, but, a woman of Winter's caliber didn't needs words to ask detailed questions. Her scathing expressions worked just fine.

"Winter, do you remember when my semblance manifested for the first time?"

"It would be hard to forget." Winter murmured, her eyes softening from their glacial stare. "You were a rather small baby, almost like a little doll. Father insisted to release your aura early, but at the time, the doctors advised against it. They waited a few months to be sure you were healthy enough to withstand it. The semblance, however, didn't take shape for quite a bit…some suspected that you didn't have the semblance. That you were illegitimate."

"I imagine that caused more than a little bit of trouble."

"Father never took slights to his progeny very well. He commented with his usual candor, of course. If you go through the old new articles, I'm sure you'll see more than one vitriolic statement aimed at the media. Naturally, the press had a field day. You seem to have a habit of catching the public eye for outlandish reasons, a habit you haven't grown out of, might I add."

"Did you ever have any doubts?"

"Well, no. I didn't have doubts. Our parents loved each other, there was never a question of that." Winter said with a sigh. "You see, I couldn't find it in my heart to doubt you. You were my baby sister. That being said, a multitude of factors made me wonder at your capabilities…mother was indeed _very_ fond of her wine. There were household rumors that, _perhaps_ , she may have continued the habit while she was pregnant with you."

"You…you thought I was a wine baby." Weiss deadpanned. "Lovely."

"I didn't think it, per say, I just left the opportunity open." Winter said before stalling with a sip of her now cooling tea. "Mother favored the drink, and it was hardly as if the outcome wouldn't have been at least partially expected. What brings about this line of questioning, Weiss? You're obviously fixated on something."

"Finley…"

"What about him?"

"He materialized a snowflake out of thin air this morning. They've shown other subtle signs, of course. The occasional manifestation of particles. He made an actual snowflake though, and so young…"

"Was it a fully formed glyph, or merely a flake?"

"Just a flake." Weiss said. "It surprised me."

"The boy's not even a year old. Weiss, are you sure that's what you saw?"

"I'm positive."

Winter licked her lips. He was not the first Schnee to manifest a strong semblance. Most in the family would merely think of the event as an eventual expectation, and set the matter aside after that. Winter, however, was not like most. She knew that Weiss had never had a particularly firm grasp on some of the elements that made their semblance so powerful. It was obvious, though, that Finley did not emulate Weiss when it came to such a powerful, innate, connection to his semblance.

"Could it be because he's Faunus?" Winter asked then. "Perhaps it's not that he is displaying particularly strong semblance. Maybe it's because he is a Faunus that an element of instinct may be involved. I recall reading somewhere that Faunus tend to utilize their semblances at the earliest convenience."

"Their aura, yes." Weiss replied. "Blake made it very clear to me that all Faunus had their aura unlocked by their families as early as possible. She didn't say anything about semblance use."

"Well, as far as I know, he is the first Faunus to carry Schnee blood."

"What you know is incorrect." Weiss stated, a long sigh falling from her lips. Of course, Winter wouldn't know. "There was one other Faunus."

"Excuse me?"

"I don't know the details. Grandfather had a…well, there's no dignified way to say this…he had a Faunus that I presume to be a sex slave. The company records have obviously been tampered with. The direct details are impossible to find, I've checked…but to say that my son is the first Faunus of Schnee blood would be completely and utterly inaccurate regardless of the circumstances."

"And you went digging around properly, I presume?"

"Yes, of course."

"You asked all the right people? Made all of the correct inquiries?"

"The best that I could..."

"Do you mean to tell me that you ensured that nothing got passed your inspection?"

"Would it really matter if I did?" Weiss asked sadly.

"Would you make such a careless statement, otherwise?" Winter asked heatedly under her breath in return. "You must assure me that you have no doubts, not even in the slightest, that out grandfather was..." Winter cut herself off, thinning her lips into an angry, tight, line. "Are you positive?"

"Father knew."

"I doubt that."

"Winter, he had to have known. I spoke to Blake once, about a few generic details. Grandfather's history came up briefly, and she hardly seemed surprised. In fact, now that I think about it, it was strange that she wasn't troubled by the matter. Father probably told her something when I forced them to share words in the past…what she knows though…I haven't asked the details. I thought it would be best if I didn't."

Winter only shook her head. "Then, perhaps it's time you do..."

* * *

Weiss needed a distraction, after tea with her sister didn't alleviate the thoughts turning in her mind. She dragged Ruby along with her, the younger woman following along under protest.

Ruby never got used to the general public. When she was younger, she viewed crowds as a minor incontinence. As she got older, had no concept of them at all. Her semblance, not to mention her job, kept her away from the bustling city streets. She never took the time to know the people living among them. Every so often though, Weiss would get bored, and when the white haired woman insisted on something to do, Ruby always found herself suffering a prolonged shopping trip.

At least this time, Weiss had a chosen a useful location.

"No, Zhu, we can't go down that isle." Ruby said, holding the boy in her arms as she continued to meander around in the local supermarket. "We have to go get more bread, and milk."

Weiss rolled her eyes as he made several low unhappy sounds in his throat. "That child eats fruit, like you eat cookies…"

"Yeah, I know." Ruby said. It wasn't an insult, it was pure fact.

Zhu loved his fruit, and he was quite indiscriminate about what sorts he got ahold of. A lesser person might have made wisecracks about the bananas, but Weiss doubted that being Faunus had anything to do with the boy's fixation. However, Atlas imported almost all of their fruits and most of their vegetables. The climate simply didn't allow for a wide variety of fruit bearing trees.

Therefore, shipments were expensive, and even at the local supermarkets. Most seasonal items were considered delicacies. Families of lower incomes found themselves purchasing pickled veggies, and dried fruit. The preservatives lowered the price to something more affordable.

"At least it is fruit." Weiss told Ruby with a shrug. "You can't really complain about his habits, given your own."

"Even so, he needs to learn to lay off a little bit. I don't have my wallet with me anyway."

"I could just buy him some." Weiss said, looking to a stand filled with bags of grapes. "They aren't that expensive."

"We came here for baby supplies, not groceries." Ruby reminded her. "Besides, if we get sidetracked, we'll spend hours in the store. I know how you are."

"Is it that much of a problem?" Weiss asked.

"No, but Sun is finally home, and well…" Ruby trailed off. "You know."

"Thankfully for you, I do." Weiss said, not needed to bring up the dirty details of their love lives. Faunus were very physical with the ones they loved, and the lack of such attentions could prove problematic. "If it makes you feel any better, I won't be needing Sun's services for the rest of the month. Aside from sorting some paperwork, and attending the meetings over at headquarters, he'll be free to do as he wishes."

"No more long distance travel?"

"Not until the first of next month. Then he'll be gone for a weekend again to begin negotiations on a new settlement."

Ruby took a small bit of comfort in that, although her eyes remained vigilant. "Still doesn't explain why we're killing time in the grocery store." Two security guards were stationed at the front of the store, but Ruby still felt uneasy following Weiss. She had wanted for Pyrrha to come along, but Weiss insisted this was a trip of pleasure only, and was not work related.

"I miss doing these things." Weiss said, putting a few different brands of Faunus friendly formula in the cart. "Not that I have a full understanding of what we keep in the kitchens. I rarely get the chance to come and get things on my own. I feel like a child sometimes, just pointing my fingers and barking orders." She paused when she came to the diapers, gazing at all of them before selecting the kind she knew Blake wanted the cubs to use. Grabbing several packages without blinking an eye she tossed them in the basket too.

"Really?" Ruby asked, surprised.

"Really." Weiss replied, dumping a tube of rash cream, and several packages of wipes into the basket. "I know it might not seem like it, but I prefer it this way." Weiss went on to say, her eyes scanning the rest of the isle. "There's just something more rewarding about taking matters into your own hands. Besides, there are a few personal items I would like to acquire."

"I can understand that, I guess…" Ruby trailed off with a sigh, a small smirk glued to her features at the ridiculousness of it all. "Woah…" She murmured as her eyes focused on the new display. "Holy crap…is that…"

"One of the many perks of being a spokesperson for the SDC." Weiss said, picking up one of the boxes of dust batteries, handing them to Ruby. "I don't understand why you're so surprised."

"Pyrrha's face used to be here…" Ruby said, trying to understand the pure magnitude of it all. "Like here, on this exact brand."

"She's no longer in the arena circuit." Weiss replied. "Yang is, and as a result, she's now the new face of the company."

"I never really did understand that." She set down the box of batteries and averted her gaze. The mere thought was unsettling. "I mean, shouldn't you be the face of the company? You're the one who owns it."

"The people like to invest their money into public figures, not the person sitting behind the desk. That's why big companies, such as the SDC, invest in sponsorships all across remnant. As far as marketing is concerned, owning a dedicated fighter in the arena is where the real money is." As they turned the corner into the personal care isle, Ruby and Weiss both stopped. "However, we at the SDC, do not endorse _that._ "

"Why is her face on the box then?"

"Adel Shipping Company." Weiss sighed. "Why else?"

"What even is this?" Ruby asked, looking at the product, pulling it off the shelf. "Is this what I think…oh my god, it is!"

Weiss merely plucked the box and placed it back on the shelf. "One of Coco's products. Personal lubricant."

"Ew…"

"If you think that's bad, don't turn around…"

"Why, what's so bad that I…" Ruby, unfortunately had turned around. "That's Yatsu's midriff, isn't it?"

"On the condom box, Ruby, yes." Weiss replied, grabbing some catnip massage oil, and a black pouch that she filled with several samples of questionable supplies. Then she took another one off the shelf, filled it, and handed it to Ruby. "Never mind all that. You said you wanted my advice about Sun. Use what's in this bag with him. I promise you, you won't regret it."

Ruby didn't know what was inside of it, but as she grabbed the small pouch she frowned. "Can we just get whatever else you need and leave? I've already melted my brain enough in this store…"


	5. Chapter 5

**EDIT FOR CHAPTER 5 as of August 7** **th** **, 2018:** This story has undergone a re-write of the first 6 chapters. New content has been added. Some has been slightly changed. So, it's highly recommended that you go back and re-read those chapters before continuing on with the fiction.

 **Chapter 5**

 _Write in the journal, she says..._

 _It's for your children, she says…_

 _Do it for me, she says..._

 _I'm only doing this to preserve what little sanity I have left. So, why am I telling you all of this? Well, to put it bluntly, I'd like to let it be known that I'm penning words on this page under duress. This is an absurd practice, and I have no idea how your mother even talked me into it, but here we are. Blake insists we keep these journals for you. While I expect that she has her reasons for it, I have no desire to be dragged into it._

 _Upon further introspection, I suppose it's merely a disagreement in our sensibilities. It hasn't been the first time, and far from the last. One might think a difference of opinion would cause a rift in the household. We're opinionated people. I don't find this to be all that helpful. After all, I have better things to be doing than writing entries in this blasted thing._

 _Bloody illogical sentimentality, that's what this is…and yes, I am aware that I sound exactly like my father when I say that._

 _Sue me._

 _In any case, as I said, I feel as though I have better things to be doing. Things like spending my time with you. My days are long, ten hours at least. I leave the house before the break of dawn, and I come home just in time for dinner, if I'm lucky. I don't have the luxury of having you children at my side at all times. Some nights, I don't even have the luxury of seeing you before you're tucked into bed._

 _Those are the days I regret the most...regrets pile up abundantly, when you least expect them. They're silent ailments in that way._

 _When I take the time to think about the matter, I realize there may be some value in journaling. I suppose when you grow up, you will want to read this. Well, if you're anything like your mother, that is. On that note, I suppose I should simply concede the point, although, I have no idea what in the world your mother expects me to write about. I'll just have to think of something. Until next time, then._

 _Now, let's see here, how to end this..._

 _Kindly?_

 _Sincerely?_

 _Warmest regards?_

 _Oh, this is completely ridiculous. I refuse to sign my name at the bottom of these…_

 _Addendum: I have been informed that I do, in fact, have to sign my name at the bottom of these. Furthermore, I have been ordered to "take this seriously", and if I actually want to sleep in the same room as the rest of you, I have to get your mother to unlock the door. I have also been informed that this journal is not a business proposal, and that showing affection is not ridiculous._

 _With all of that in mind, I've been implored to try again._

 _I leave this as physical proof, and perhaps the first piece of sage advice I have to offer to you. Do not argue with your mother under any circumstance, you'll never win._

 _With love,  
Mutti._

* * *

"Blake…" Weiss said firmly.

"No." Came the matched reply.

"Blake!" This time in anger.

"No!" Blake offered, equally in tone.

Finally, it was an act of concession, little else. "Blake I'm tired, open this door." Weiss said, hoping the plea would earn something akin to sympathy.

"Not until you've written in that journal." Blake commanded, and in that, Weis had her answer. Unfavorable as it was.

She expected this though. Had prepared an entry just so Blake could see it. "I have the bloody thing in my hand as we speak." Weiss said, smacking the journal against the door in aggravation. "You cannot lock me out of my own bedroom, this is completely insane!"

Blake opened the door, her ears pressed back unhappily. "Did you actually write in it this time?" Blake asked, knowing Weiss has avoided the responsibility for far too long.

"Yes, in fact I did."

"A proper entry." Blake pressed. "Not stock reports."

"Here." Weiss flipped to the page. "Read it for yourself." She said, fingers tapping on the door frame. She felt her ire rise as Blake actually continued to stand in her way while reading. "Blake?"

Blake looked it over. She wasn't happy, but closed the book and looked at her wife and mate. "So, I ask you to put something in the journal, and the first thing you choose to write about is our argument. That's a wonderful first impression."

"Did it ever occur to you that my whole life is dictated by paperwork?" Weiss shot back with no small amount of acid in her tone. "I do not want to write in that stupid thing and perpetuate your paranoia, and let's not mince words Blake. That's exactly what that blasted thing is, and I truly don't want any part of it."

"Weiss, if something were to-"

"Stop. Just stop. Don't even finish that sentence." Weiss order, her palm firmly over the taller woman's mouth to silence her. "I refuse to hear it." Pulling her hand away he continued to lean heavily on the door. "Blake, sweetheart, I love you dearly. That being said you have got to stop worrying about every little thing all the time."

"I just want something to pass onto the future, and I want you to at least consider putting a little bit of effort into that."

"And I want you to put a little more effort into you and I." Weiss implored for what seemed like the thousandth time. "We could really use some alone time, just us."

"We do find some time together." Blake argued, ticking a list of things off of her fingers. "We've been taking dinner together more often, had brunch at the café just the other week, and we just started a new book together the other day."

"More than an hour or two at a time." Weiss demanded between gently clenched teeth. "And without you staring at your scroll like it's going to explode. In fact, I would very much like if for just one evening we lock them in a drawer and pretend we aren't there. If we plan things correctly, we might be able to walk around the premises like we used to do."

"Weiss…" Blake bit her lip. "You know I still don't like leaving them on their own for too long."

"On their own…" Weiss chided. "You say that as if we just leave them. Do you truly not trust Ruby and Sun to watch over our children for any true length of time?"

"It's not just that." Blake said with a shake of her head. "Things are just different now, in ways I'm not used to."

"What do you mean?" Weiss asked, her voice becoming softer, dropping her harsh tone.

Blake pushed away from the door shaking her head and allowing her mate entry. "It's nothing Weiss, I just…" There was no good way to say it. "I know I asked for celibacy, and I know we should observe that tradition, but it's harder to do than I thought it would be."

"Being near me alone is difficult for you right now, isn't it?" Weiss asked, but Blake shook her head once more. "You can be honest about it. Coco's already warned me about how difficult it can be for Faunus and humans to maintain celibacy due to our differences. Velvet gave up the practice just as soon as she healed from the birth."

"It's not difficult at all." Blake protested. "If anything, it's almost too easy. The maids hardly look at you, and even though Zhu marks you every chance he gets, it's hardly intentional." At that Blake licked her lips. "It's just that there are a lot of changes going on around the household, and you've been spending so many hours at work. Everything's just so overwhelming, and I don't even know why."

"I would assume that's hormones talking." Weiss closed the door behind them, undressing out of her work attire, as was the norm.

"Maybe." Blake swallowed hard. "Or maybe I'm just tired. I don't know. Truth be told, I've missed you more than I can even say, Weiss. It's just that I don't miss the intimacy like I thought I would. I just miss you, but, I don't want to disappoint you."

"You'd be less tired if you didn't try to do everything on your own." Weiss replied softly. "I'm not home nearly as much as I would like to be. I've cut sixteen hour days down to ten, and I still feel like I'm always away. If you had some help, I'm sure you wouldn't feel so stressed out."

"But I should be able to handle it on my own."

"There is no law that says that." Weiss frowned. "Stop trying to compete with everyone else. I would much rather you didn't try to become a carbon copy of Velvet, Pyrrha, or any other mother out there."

"I know it's selfish, but I want to be good enough." Blake said. "I want us to be good enough."

"I can't believe this." Weiss laughed then, but it was bitter, lonely. "Are you listening to yourself right now? Do you realize how asinine that is?" She looked over to her children curled up in the bedding, and then over to Blake. "We will never be enough, Blake. We can't be, we _shouldn't_ be. There are three of them, and two of us. Sweetheart, this house is too big, and lonely, and no matter what we do, you and I will never be enough."

"I don't want strangers to raise my children…"

"So ask Ruby to help you for a few hours every day."

"I can't." Blake said. "That's not fair to Sun, or to Zhu."

"Do you really think they'll say no? It's not fair for you to be running yourself ragged, either." Weiss shot back.

Blake chose not to comment on that. "I don't know how you manage to work every day. You're woken up almost every time I am at night. You seem fine. How come you can have everything in order, while I don't?"

"I sleep at my desk." Weiss said as she led her already pajama clad wife over to the blankets. "I've taken more breaks than I ever used to, just for quick powernaps. Without them, I'd never make it through my meetings. I'm just as tired as you are, but unlike you, I find more opportunities for peace. We'll talk about this later, but right now, we're both exhausted, and we need rest while we can get it."

"You're right." Blake admitted, her ears folding down with her guilt. "We do need the rest."

* * *

The next day, Blake suffered through her own Oobleck appointment, and a very taxing sendoff as the man planned to head back to Vale. Blake didn't know why, exactly, but her mind was far more at ease with him in the house.

"You'll be fine." Bartholomew said with such certainty that it was hard to doubt him. He's found nothing wrong with Blake in her exam. "I'm confident that you're coming along nicely, and everything is as it should be. I've no complaints with your aura, or your general health."

"Thanks for the clean bill of health, then." Blake said, finally feeling reassured, even if only slightly.

"As if there were any doubts?" He smiled then, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose as he handed a handwritten report to Blake. "As for the little ones, a little bit of perseverance goes a long way. Do not let yourself be discouraged in the face of difficulty, and do not be intimidated to follow your intuition. It's yours, after all."

Blake nodded, sagging heavily against the door. "I'll do my best to keep that in mind." She replied, her thumb bushing up against a bit of wallpaper that had frayed over the years. It was a welcome distraction, one she clung to as her old professor regarded her too kindly for her own guilty liking. "You'll be going back to Beacon, then?"

"Of course, and truthfully, I shouldn't delay my departure any longer than I have to." He said with a nod, turning back to the bed, where his belongings had been laid out by the maids, freshly laundered. "As always, I have students to teach, papers to grade, and research to study. I haven't the time to simply laze around, even if the idea does seem appealing from time to time. The work of a huntsman is never done, I'm afraid."

"Yeah, I suppose you're right about that." Blake laughed uneasily. "One of the many reasons I stepped out of the profession. I'd never be able to keep the kind of schedule you do, that's for sure."

"It's been my experience that Beacon's education is best received by those who do not plan to make hunting a life-long commitment." He replied, rolling up the two white shirts that had come back fresh from the laundry. "People, both Faunus and human alike, are not meant to spend the entirety of their lives battling Grimm. The profession is simply too taxing on the body and mind. Experienced hunters know when to pass the torch on, as it were."

"Try telling that to Ruby." Blake observed then, the thought having taken root there for quite some time. "I'd think she'd disagree."

"She would, but I fear that may one day be her undoing." The man said sternly. "In my professional opinion, the defense of our kingdoms is thankless, inglorious, and tragic. It must be done, but the task must be taken by the right people. A huntress such as Ruby has too much to live for, and too much to risk. If I were you, that is to say, if she were my teammate, I would do everything in my power to keep her safely inside kingdom walls."

"She wouldn't listen to me, even if I tried."

"Indeed, stubbornness runs in her blood. I wouldn't begin to deny it." Oobleck finished packing his satchel and luggage, gathering his coat and hat as after thoughts. "Now then, if you'll be so kind as to show me out, I should be on my way. Feel free to contact me anytime, day or night."

"I will." Blake promised with a grateful nod, as she began to lead him down to the front door. "Thank you."

* * *

Winter had told Weiss that she was bringing something important to the corporate office, but she hadn't explicitly stated what it was. Now that the woman was there, Weiss could hardly believe her eyes. A glass cage held a tiny black creature with red glowing eyes as it huddled into the corner, hiding amongst the straw. Winter didn't waste any time plucking it from the glass prison and depositing it onto the floor.

"Well, what do you think, Weiss?" The older sister asked expectantly, seemingly pleased with herself. "Don't you think this is a fine gift for Finley?"

"I think that you are completely suicidal." Weiss replied, looking at the baby Grimm that had been taken from its den. "Blake isn't going to like this."

"I don't particularly care what she likes." Winter replied, bending down to examine the frightened little creature that would grow to be deadly. "It's tradition. Besides, I've long held the belief that the reason you failed to master your summoning, was because you weren't properly exposed as a child. Every Schnee is bequeathed their first summon by their parents. That you were denied your very birthright was inexcusable."

"Well," Weiss allowed slowly, "It is kind of cute."

"Most baby Grimm are." Winter replied gently. "My own wolf was my dearest friend growing up. Our summons grow with us, Weiss. They become more powerful as we do. It's more than a manifestation of aura, it's a manifestation of our spirit. Our bond. That's why our first summon normally remains our strongest. Do not deny your son what our father denied you."

"Summon or not, a Grimm is still a Grimm." Weiss said.

"So it is." Winter murmured thoughtfully. "Although, its usefulness is a matter of degree."

"Blake won't see it that way." Weiss said, recalling all of the summons she had collected, and how finicky her ability to call upon them happened to be. She could do it in the heat of the moment. When rage and a desperate desire to fight for her life clouded her being entirely. She would never be like her sister, who could summon with merely a desire to. "Blake hates keeping regular pets around, but a small Grimm? Oh she'll be livid, summon or not."

"I knew you would say that." Winter replied. "Which is why I will entrust it to Finley, if you decide that you will not."

"Are you implying that I don't have a say in the matter?" Weiss asked her.

"Yes, indeed, that's exactly what I'm saying." Without hesitation, Winter sliced through the little creature. Ending it so swiftly that it wouldn't know pain at all. The Beowolf pup dissipated into a cloud of white fluff before resurfacing when Winter called to it. The same little creature was seemingly reborn as a shroud of white and blue. "There, you see? Here we have it, a perfect little summon just waiting for his master."

She held her glyph steady, waiting for Weiss to take the summoned Grimm into one of her own glyphs for later, but the shorter woman hesitated. "Are you absolutely sure about this?"

"As sure as the blood that flows through his veins." Winter told her. "You owe it to him, to all of your children, to pass on every skill inherent in our bloodline."

"I'd never be able to teach them how to properly summon a slain Grimm." The younger sister mentioned then. "How could Finley possibly learn?"

"The same way we all do at first…by accident." Winter said pointedly. "It's not so much a skill that can be taught. It must first be felt, then trained, and then the user must endeavor to master the skill." It was then that a thought came to her. "I'll tell you what. When Finley is of age, if he wishes it, I will take him under my wing. He will learn the world. See it, as it is meant to be seen. I will cultivate his existing talents so that he will become the most capable Schnee that the world has ever laid eyes on."

Weiss nodded, her own glyph forming just over winter's capturing the small Grimm that sat upon it. The glyph faded a moment later, the small Grimm along with it. "I still have no idea how we're going to explain this to Blake."

Winter merely smiled. "You just leave that to me."

* * *

Blake was finding her mood souring quickly when she heard the news that Wilson was stopping by the main household for the first time in several months. A burning ire set in her belly, and to make matters worse, Weiss wasn't home. Blake had promised to treat the man with some level of respect, but it going to be hard to keep. Her father-in-law was not the sort of person she chose to have a casual conversation with.

Honestly, the man was likely equally disgusted by the idea of sharing the afternoon together in any capacity. Then again, that was hardly a surprise. Their mutual hatred of each other made every family gathering difficult.

Refusing him entry into her nesting area, Blake glared daggers at him. "Just what in the hell do you want?"

"We both know why I'm here." Wilson said, quite unhappily at that. "I wouldn't give you the time of day if it weren't for Weiss. You can either grant me entry, or I can turn away and explain to my daughter that you are the one that kept me from my grandchildren."

"They're my children first and foremost." Blake snarled.

"I know." He nearly spat. "Such a shame too, if I do say so myself."

"You can't strong-arm me on this one." Blake told him. "Weiss asked both of us to put our differences aside of her sake." Blake told him, before casting a glance to her offspring laying in the bedding behind the door. "For theirs." She sighed, more to herself than the man in front of her. "If you can't man up and do just that, then turn away. Weiss will know who blame."

"I absolutely loathe you." Wilson crossed his arms, fury lingering there. His eyes stone cold. "Do you really want to be friendly with me?" He asked her snidely. "Weiss isn't here. Why lie about our thoughts on the matter?"

Blake nodded, but stood aside. "Feeling's mutual, pompous old bastard."

"That's more like it." Wilson walked into the room, head held high as he set his eyes on the three youngsters. He expected more of his bloodline in them, he frowned at the color in the eyes of the young males, the ears atop their head…and the boy with the tail made him sneer. "Faunus, all of them look it. None of them even remotely look like a true Schnee."

"Yet, they are." Blake replied as she stepped forward, almost protectively. "Finley's the eldest, male, and the largest of the litter. His aura has manifested several times. Winter believes he will have a strong command of his semblance. Wycliff is not far behind either, though he is the last to be born, and the smallest."

"And more feline than the rest." Wilson lamented.

"He is." Blake rasped out with great difficulty. "He is more…feline…it concerns me too."

"Shouldn't you of all people be happy?" Wilson asked. "They look like you."

"I know!" Blake hissed. "I know, and that's just how it is. Deep down, I was hoping they wouldn't. Even with their lineage, their lives would be so, so much easier if they didn't look so much like me at a glance. I wanted them to look like Weiss. I was hoping if they inherited her features, maybe their ears wouldn't matter."

"Well, in spite of your wishes, they do not." Wilson sighed at great length. "So, what will you do now?"

"Take each day as it comes. I can't think that far ahead. I've tried, but I can't." Blake sighed. "I'm tired. Weiss is exhausted. We keep pushing ourselves as hard as we can, but the company is a massive undertaking…" She nodded to her children. "And so are they. I'd like to think we're doing the best we can, and yet, in the back of my mind, it's not good enough."

"It never will be." Wilson replied as he turned to her. "Every day, you do what you are able, and the next day, you hope to do better. You can fret over it all you like, in time, you will come to understand one thing. No matter what you do, or what actions you take, you will always wish you have done better. To think you have done perfectly is arrogance. So, you act, you learn, you act again…and then you pray, that you eventually get it right."

At this, Blake let the mild shock in her mind show clearly across her face. "Are you actually trying to give me parenting advice?"

"Don't see it as a kindness." Wilson huffed as he turned away. "More importantly, Weiss would rather have me back at this residence. It's tradition, one that I've never looked favorably upon, but perhaps that too is the lament of the bloodline. What do you think about that?"

"I have nothing to say. It's out of my hands if that's what she wants."

"You'll put up with it so willingly?" Wilson asked.

"Weiss wants you involved in their lives, I don't have the right to fight against that." Blake said with a shrug. "We agreed not to torture Weiss with our distain for each other. More importantly, is it even worth your time? They're Faunus, not human."

"That remains to be seen." Wilson told her. "What of the girl?"

"Bianca is the most assertive of the three. Her aura is weaker than her siblings, but, that means nothing in the long run. Faunus women develop aura at a much slower rate, until she hits puberty, it's anyone's guess." Blake reported, though she had no clue why Wilson might take an interest in her. "It's her instinct to command the situation. If she grows into it or not, only time will tell."

Wilson nodded thoughtfully. "The Schnee women are delicate little angels when they're young. There is nothing quite like a daughter. Perhaps, if you are lucky, yours won't stray quite so far away from your influence…but, I sorely doubt it." He flicked his gaze back to the Faunus woman. "You'll have a taste of your own medicine with that one, I assure you."


	6. Chapter 6

**EDIT FOR CHAPTERS 1-6 as of August 7** **th** **, 2018:** This story has undergone a re-write of the first 6 chapters. New content has been added. Some has been slightly changed. So, it's highly recommended that you go back and re-read those chapters before continuing on with the fiction.

 **Chapter 6**

 _Aside from your grandfather and your aunt, I'd like to think you have a sprawling extended family. We Faunus uphold complex communities, you know, and we do our best to do honor to those we choose to be part of those communities. The problem is, this community, this family, is mostly human. Well, the adults, anyway. I'd like to think that this will enrich your lives for the better. However, because they're human, it can also complicate matters on occasion._

 _That's just the way it is. I've already prepared for some of the worst I can think of. Although, I doubt it will ever come to that. Even so, better to be safe, than to be sorry later._

 _So then, I suppose we should discuss these people in your lives. I'm sure that by the time you're able to read this, you'll have drawn your own conclusions. That will be later though, and now's a different time. I wish you could know them now, as I know them. Time has a way of changing people. I have no way to predict the future, but they should have a place recorded here too._

 _So on that topic, I suppose let's begin with Ruby Rose._

 _She's the youngest of us, but only by a few years. When we were teenagers, the gape was noticeable. Aggravatingly so, really. When I first met her, I thought her to be childish, and although she was a surprisingly skilled individual, I kept my guard raised around her for a solid year…maybe a year and a half. It was nothing personal, I just didn't want her to grow attached to me. I couldn't allow her to form some sort of dependency on me._

 _After all, I was paired off with her older sister in school. It was a real possibility._

 _As we aged, those noticeable differences in our maturity became nonexistent. For example, she was a rather shy girl, awkward, and far too bubbly when I first met her. She aged into a ruthless huntress though. Kind to people, giving to all in need, but she's a Grimm's worst nightmare…or, at least she was. I'd like to think that she'll be out hunting again before she knows it, but for now she spends a lot of her time with us, keeping Zhu on the hip._

 _On that note, I hope you get along well with Zhu, and to that end, Sun._

 _In fact, Sun's role in your lives will be very important as your grow older. At least, that's how I feel it should be, especially for you boys. Frankly speaking there are just some things your mother and I just don't have experience with. I highly doubt your grandfather will be much help to you, but, Sun can be trusted. If ever you happen to be in need of a male figure to look up to, and let's be honest, the day will come eventually, look no further than Sun Wukong._

 _From your mother with love,  
Blake Belladonna._

* * *

Promises made with hopeful outcomes weren't exactly promises at all. They were just lies.

Even if she made them out of the desire for them to be true, she hated being turned into a person who couldn't keep her word. She didn't like foolish reminders of her failures. There were plenty of them. They glared her in the face in the most subtle ways. The numbers on a ticking clock, the sun setting, the sounds of employees going home, and her own existed sighs.

 _"_ _I'll make it up to you, I promise."_

The words echoed in her mind, and she hated herself for it. Weiss had lost count of just how many times she had to say it recently, but it was getting out of hand. Her days were growing longer, and her work was piling up endlessly. Blake took what little paperwork she could to help Weiss, but it wasn't nearly enough. It was dark by the time she got home from the corporate offices, feeling the soreness in her sagging shoulders.

Weiss made her way to the dining hall only to find it was already empty. She expected it, but it was still a sad little reminder of how much she missed out on. Her stomach growled painfully. Having skipped lunch just to do more work. Even knowing she would miss dinner, she had been craving a warm family meal. With the lights off and the room empty, she just couldn't bring herself to order the kitchen staff around so late in the evening.

Instead, she tiredly walked up to the nursery, or as most Faunus called it, the nesting area.

She knew Blake would be there, and she couldn't wait to see her wife and children. Slipping off her shoes, she left them by the door and entered.

"Weiss, you're home early." Blake said, ears perked up pleasantly. "I wasn't expecting you in for another few hours."

"It wasn't early enough." The woman sighed, loosening the light blue necktie that she had tucked into her blazer. "Obviously I missed dinner, although that couldn't be helped." She practically tore herself out of her perfectly white ensemble, cursing when the zipper to her pencil skirt jammed in the worst place imaginable. "How were things at home?"

"It was a lazy day. Everyone's still out. I think they're watching the Atlas bracket matches." Blake announced with only a hint of loneliness. "The competition seems rather fierce this year. Even the schools are fired up for the upcoming tournament."

"Well, the past few years, the schools were hitting a dry spell. We haven't had any strong representatives for Atlas in a while." Weiss reminded her conversationally. "It's nice to know that Atlas Academy stands a solid chance at taking home the first place trophy this year. It's been going to Vale for too many years in a row."

"Don't let Ozpin hear you say that." Blake teased, only to hear a huff of minor aggravation issue from the closet.

"I'm an Atlas native. I'm more than allowed to support my own kingdom." Weiss said, her pride for her homeland running strong. "Not that Beacon ever produces weak teams, not with Glynda Goodwitch remaining the primary combat instructor. Even so, I'd pay good money to see Atlas wipe the floor with Vale just once."

"That's true." Blake said with a smile. "It should be an entertaining line-up."

Weiss nodded, an afterthought coming to mind. "Jaune and Pyrrha took their children to spectate the Atlas matches, I presume?"

"Are you kidding, Pyrrha couldn't talk them out of it even if she tried." Blake laughed earnestly. "And trust me, she tried…"

Weiss stuck her head out of the walk-in closet. "You could have gone with them. It's customary that the SDC provides entertainment for all of the tournaments. Yang and Yatsuhashi were supposed to put on the pre-tournament performance. If you went, you could have gotten into the back room after the match. I know you miss spending time with her now that Yang lives in Vale."

"I am not about to take the cubs to a loud, rambunctious, arena filled with crowds of people." Blake shot back, giving her wife an inquiring look, as though the woman had lost her good sense. During this time, Finley had taken to nuzzling his mother's palm, mewing as he looked for her attention. Absently, she began to run her fingers through his hair, pausing every so often to smooth out the ruffled fur around his Faunus ears. "Besides, she probably brought that cat of hers with her."

"And that's a problem?"

"Like you wouldn't believe." Blake retorted, her ears flattening back at the mere idea. "The very last thing our children need to be doing is emulating that blasted feline."

"It's just a cat." Weiss said, buttoning up her baggy, unflattering flannel pajamas. They looked absurd, but they were warm, and comfortable. Scooping up Wycliff who was tired, fussy, and more than willing to snuggle, she made a beeline for the bedding.

"It's a perverted devil animal, that's what it is." Blake half groused, half growled.

"Yes dear." Weiss replied dryly, ignoring the distaste she could hear loud and clear. There was no point to argue the topic. Instead she turned out the light, knowing perfectly well that Blake could see just fine in the dark. "Well, obviously I'm not the only one around here who's exhausted. If you could kindly come to bed already, maybe we can all get some actual rest for a change."

"At nine-o-clock?" Blake could only sigh fondly at her mate.

"Wycliff is more than happy to lay here." Weiss returned, though her own eyes were already closed, and her son had already begun to purr. "Maybe if you lay them down, turn out the lights, and stay still, they'll get the idea."

"Or they'll start screaming, which we both know is the more likely possibility."

Weiss grunted indignantly. "Worth a bloody try."

"Sweetheart, go to sleep, you're delusional, not to mention cranky."

"Damn propensity towards nocturnal tendencies." Weiss grumbled, although she put up no further complaint as she cuddled Wycliff close to her, pointedly ignoring the smirk she just knew was plastered across her wife's face.

* * *

Weiss couldn't sleep easily though. There was something she needed to do, something personal. In the dead of night, she shuffled around in bed, seeking her lover twitch idly from the action. Sure that Blake was still asleep, and tht she wouldn't be bothered, Weiss pulled forth the tiny glyph that Winter had given her. The power of that small Beowolf resting deep within the sanctuary of that space.

The small glyph twirled, the power soft and gentle, the glow faint and weak.

Ever so carefully, she placed the spinning little glyph over her child's heart, watching as his semblance glowed from around him. He would never know the power lurking within him, not until the day he called to it himself.

She hoped he would learn how, that he would find that power deep within himself, dormant and eager to meet him.

Finley was the obligation she kept in high regard. He was her little boy, her first born son. Somehow, it seemed as though she would be doomed to completely fail him. That even bequeathing such a power to the boy promised a future fate that would lead ultimately to unhappiness.

Weiss knew that such a thing was ridiculous. The ability to use his semblance to the fullest or not, was not an end-all, be-all, answer to the question of if he would be a suitable heir. Or, if his siblings would accept that sort of decision from her without a comment. After all, Wycliff was born on the same day. The timing a matter of semantics. Weiss had blazed the woman's trail, so even Bianca could technically contest her brother's position, vying for a place in the company on her own merits.

No, their futures were not set in stone, Weiss assured herself as she watched the glow fade from her baby boy.

This first little summon promised nothing. It was merely a chance for him to have what she did not. Furthermore, it was his right as a Schnee, nothing more. Once the right Grimm were found, his siblings too would receive their wolves too. This wasn't favoritism, she told herself. It wasn't as though she were completely against someone else taking the company, or even splitting it three ways if she needed to.

This wasn't anything more than a passing moment in time. That Finley received the Grimm first was merely the order of things. She kept thinking it as she lay back down to sleep. Hoping, and praying that she wasn't deluding herself.

That this one time, she was telling herself the truth.

* * *

The next day, Weiss had sorely needed a distraction. One that Ruby was all too happy to provide as they got out of the house for another shopping trip. It didn't last long before another storm tore through the peaceful grey sky like a knife. Wet sleet fell from the sky in sheets, cutting the outing short.

Blake could only watch in amusement as Ruby and Weiss shucked off their outer clothing at the door, shaking slush from their forms. The unforgiving elements had gotten to them.

"It wasn't supposed to storm today." Weiss lamented, squeezing freezing cold water from her hair. It splashed onto the marble loudly, a testament to just how drenched she was. "I checked the forecast, _twice!"_

"I told you, you should have taken the limo." Blake said as she took her wife's freezing hands in hers. "You both needs showers or you're going to catch a chill." She said, though with the way Zhu was already shivering in his own slush pile it was clear that had already happened. "You too, Zhu."

"Oh please, a little slush never hurt anybody." Weiss gratefully took a warmed towel from a nearby butler, wrapping her long hair in it so that it didn't make more of a mess. "We're more robust than that, I would hope."

"We might be, but he's not." Ruby bent down, stripping Zhu of his clothes and training underwear completely before wrapping him up. in his own warm towel. "I'm going to get him into a warm bath."

"It's because you don't take him outside enough." Weiss called after her, with a small shake of her head. "What?" She asked, when her wife lifted a dark eyebrow in her direction. "It's true. This is Atlas, you just have to get used to the idea of being cold."

"Some of us don't relish the artic temperatures, you know." Blake told her. "And like it or not, you still feel frigid to me. If you don't go and get into a hot shower right now, I'm going to put you there myself."

"That sounds like a threat I'd like to encourage."

 _"Weiss..."_

"Fine, fine." Weiss sighed, rummaging through the grocery bags to take the personal bag she had filled at the store. She wanted to hide it before the hired help could see what exactly she had purchased. She didn't doubt that they were well aware of the personal items located on the bottom drawer in her nightstand. She also didn't want to have some sort of dialogue with them about it, either.

These new purchases would raise eyebrows.

There were some things best left to the imagination, although, Weiss was sure that even that was minimal. Scent marking took out many of the larger questions that most humans might titter on about, and she knew for a fact that the Faunus maids gossiped among themselves. Blake had made no question of her lovemaking in the past, leaving everyone to speculate on the sordid details. Blake's lurid reading, fantasy or not, made sinful accusations of what might just go on behind closed doors.

Truthfully, Weiss knew her own collection was no better. In fact, perhaps to some degree, it was worse. It was a thought she pushed out of her head quickly.

"What's in the bag?" Blake asked.

Weiss gave Blake a long look. She had gone to great lengths to purchase the countless purchases from her wife. Buying everything in small amounts over several trips. She had finally come up with a good surprise, and she wasn't about to squander or ruin it now. "You'll see when the time is right."

"Suit yourself, but I still want you to get into a hot shower."

"That's exactly where I'm headed. So why are you out and about?" Weiss asked then, finding it strange that Blake would wander around the house freely. She had been so reluctant to do it in the past.

"As soon as I was done feeding them, Winter flung me out of the room with a glyph, and then locked the door shut." Blake deadpanned. "I don't know what possessed her to do that, but, I've given up trying to get back in." That didn't keep her from carrying the baby monitor around with her everywhere, though.

"Well, it does worry her that you spend so much time cooped up in there." Weiss replied as they both meandered back up the stairs.

"I know, I know. All of you make it a habit to tell me just how cooped up I've been."

"Well, knowing my sister, we have at least another hour before she'll even think about unlocking it." Weiss replied, treading her fingers through Blake's own. "We could make the most of it…"

"Weiss I-"

"You're not going to disappoint me." The shorter woman interrupted once they reached the top of the stairs. She needed to yank Blake along to get her to walk to the direction of their old bedroom, and once they got there, she had to very nearly push Blake through the doo with firm insistence. "I get it, you're tired…we both are…"

"I'm not just tired." Blake said. "I'm…" She paused, and looked away. Shame oozed from her next choice of words. "I don't even know."

"We were warned about these kinds of things." Weiss said with a frown, undoing her hair from the towel and leaving it discarded by her feet. "It's because we were that I've been so detached, I suppose. My rational mind says this is what's to be expected, and I leave it at that. I don't push hard enough when I know I should, and I've gotten complacent because I decided I'd leave you entirely in charge of household matters as you saw fit…but, now I see why that's not going to work."

"It's working just fine." Blake protested, knowing that just wasn't the case. "Well, for the most part."

"I miss having you to myself, and if I'm going to be crass about it, I miss the sex too." With a small toss, the black bag ended up on the bed, and Weiss turned to Blake. "We're creatures of habit. I'd like to think it's worked to our advantage more often than not. The problem is, now those habits are forced to change, and like it or not, we're building new ones. If we're not careful, it's going to turn toxic. I have to start relying on my father's statistical input on the company, and you have to start relying on others for help around here."

She looked around the room. It seemed like forever since they had last used their bed. It was even longer ago that they'd actually made love in it. The handful of months seemed like eons, and truth be told, it was wearing them both thin. They knew it, but had been trudging on dutifully both to each other, their children, and the world around them.

Yet something…. _something_ ….had to give.

"Our children sleep in the middle of the bedding, and I haven't been able to lay in your arms in I don't know how long…it's as if we're closer than we've ever been, but then, why do you feel so far out of reach?" Weiss asked, hurting more than she wanted to truly admit. As if doing so was its own weakness she simply couldn't acknowledge.

"I promise you, I'm not." Blake said, pulling Weiss into her arms. "I'll always be in reach of you, Weiss."

Weiss believed that, of course, there was no doubt in her mind that this was just a rough patch. That it would pass, just like all of the others in their shared life. Even so, she felt lonelier than she knew what to do with. The knot bunched up in her throat as a result, the emotion simply too hard to swallow back. It took several tries. "Just..." She cut herself off.

Weiss couldn't find the words to speak. She searched desperately for them. She just couldn't find the right words to ask the questions she wanted. Instead, she picked up one of the abandoned books on the shelf that had collected a thin layer of dust. She then passed it to Blake before turning on the water in the bathtub. Her voice finally found purchase over the hot running liquid. "Get in here already. This tub's too big for me."

* * *

Zhu flicked his tail thoughtfully back and forth as he munched on a protein bar. Ever so carefully he hopped onto the back of the sofa peering over Blake's shoulder with no small amount of curiosity. His sights were set on the little Faunus in her arms, watching as small ears twitched as the baby suckled. Blake flicked her gaze to the boy before turning back to Ruby. "Needless to say, Wilson will be moving back in…"

"Oh, great, just what I always wanted to hear." Ruby smirked sarcastically. "Are you sure you're okay with that, though? Weiss would back you up if you really didn't want him here."

"Honestly, I still can't say I like the man." Blake told her. "I don't think we'll ever get along, but it doesn't matter if I like him or not. It's not up to me. I knew what I was getting into when I got married. When you mate a human, you find the compromise between the customs. Although I hate him, we're family. Faunus don't tend to cast aside family, blood or not."

A shouting match from across the hall cause both of the women in the room to sigh. Ruby just glared through the wall, exasperated. "I was getting used to not hearing Armageddon in the home office."

"Ruby…are you actually angry at him?"

Gunmetal eyes rolled in obvious distaste. "It's not like I don't understand. I'm used to shouting matches, I mean look at my uncle. He's not happy unless someone's in an uproar about something. It's just that…I don't really think Weiss or her dad really get it." Ruby said awkwardly. "You can't just smoosh a family together and expect everyone to get along…and you aren't just a family by being smooshed together either…"

Blake nodded at this as the shouting match continued. "It's all they know…"

"Can you really be satisfied with that, though?" Ruby asked. "Can Weiss?"

Blake shrugged at this. It was a question she had asked herself several times over. She didn't have an answer the first time she had ever met the man, and still to this day, she couldn't fathom the sort of bond the two shared. Still, it was there, regardless. Blake had long since learned that she was never going to figure it out. "I think…" Blake began slowly, and thoughtfully. "Well…I close my eyes, and I think back to our first year in Beacon. More aptly, I think about the unsteady alliance Weiss and I maintained back then."

"And?"

"And that's it." Blake replied. "We didn't know how to deal with each other. We knew only that we had to. Then, she found out that I was a Faunus, and everything that was a low boil exploded into a fight that just needed to happen. With those two, I apply the same principle. I make the same parallels, and then set the matter aside."

"You'd think all that fighting would be exhausting…"

"It's because they don't fight enough, Ruby." Blake said softly. "If they voiced their disagreements more often, I doubt the shouting matches would be so filled with vitriol. As it is, they hold everything in and then explode on each other. Then, eventually they pick up the pieces before exploding again…as I said before, it's all they seem to know…but it's their bond to have, even if I can't fathom the nature of it."

"If you say so." Ruby murmured, but didn't seem entirely convinced.

"With all due respect, you and Sun disagree rather blatantly as well…" Blake replied. "It's very obvious when you two have a disagreement."

"Disagreement…oh, wait you mean last night?" Ruby asked with a harsh blush. "Blake…that um….that wasn't an argument. Or rather, it wasn't the kind you're thinking…"

"I doubt you have a clue as to what I'm thinking." Blake said offhandedly, tapping her nose to prove her point. "You know, Ruby, being mates with a human is not always an easy thing. We learn act oblivious at an early age, because we have to. Unless you happen to be a Faunus hailing from a specie with a particularly bad sense of smell, scent can tell you a great deal. While it's true as a monkey Faunus Sun's nose will never be as powerful as mine, he does still have one. With humans, we have to be respectful of your privacy, so we don't often bring to attention what's obvious to us."

Ruby narrowed her eyes. "Just what exactly are you getting at?"

"Just that, as Faunus, Sun and I can smell when someone's feeling high levels of anxiety. They sweat more, among other things. The odor is pungent…and you've been upset lately. You're hiding it well, but…listen, we can tell…and…well, there's really no delicate way to put this…" Blake muttered unhappily. "What my nose tells me is only very basic sensory data. It's the same for Sun. It isn't as if we know why. We could hazard a guess, but that's all it would be."

"Oh…"

"Anyway, he might not be saying anything, but Sun's worried about you. It's in his scent too. I'm telling you this, because as a Faunus, you'd know it. What I'm telling you isn't private information to a Faunus. Anyone with a strong sense of small could tell." Blake told her. "Anyway, I'm worried about you too…but I know you don't like being coddled…I just want to point all that out. You can talk to me too, Ruby. About anything. If you want my help, all you have to do is ask. I'll do anything I can."


	7. Chapter 7

**AYangThang:** Hey everyone, you may not have noticed, but this fiction received several edits from chapters 1-6 recently, adding quite a bit of content and changing some around to better suit this story. That's why there was such a long delay, I wanted to sit on my chapters, and really make sure it was going in the direction that I really wanted it to. Anyway, enjoy this chapter, and I'll be back with another update soon.

* * *

 **Chapter 7**

 _Ruby Rose isn't the only human you'll come to trust in your lives, although I'm sure you'll grow closer to her purely because she resides under the same roof as we do. However, if I am truly transparent and honest with the lot of you, should anything happen to Weiss and myself, your wellbeing has been bequeathed to Ruby's older sister, Yang Xiao Long._

 _That bombastic blond woman is your god-mother, for better and for worse._

 _It wasn't a decision we made lightly, and it wasn't something we chose out of convenience. Actually, frankly speaking, it's a promise Yang made that would be burdensome in the long run for her. She never said that, but, it doesn't need to be said._

 _While it's true she's been absorbed into Velvet's household, and you will come to understand Yang as an extension of their family because of that, you should know, she belonged to ours first. She will always, always be my kin. Yours too. Yang was a solid foundation, a bedrock of stability in our house and home. Without her, I doubt this future would have even come into existence._

 _At the very least, I promise that it wouldn't be the same. Very likely, you wouldn't have been born. Without Yang in our lives, Weiss and I wouldn't have fallen in love. That's a fact. _Likely, we'd still be enemies, unwilling to give each-other the time of day.__

 _Yang and Ruby both worked very hard to see the success of our team at first. I can't say that Weiss, or myself, put in half of the effort to better our team than they did._

 _In our earliest years together, team RWBY suffered from a lack of direction. We were tumbleweeds, rolling to our own drum. It came at a cost, especially during our first year at Beacon Academy. Yang was Ruby's protective older sister, and my reckless goofball of a partner. She was blunt and to the point, lacking several social graces that came natural to me. At first, I presumed it was due to my Faunus heritage, but, as Weiss proved later, it was merely that Yang lacked decorum at all._

 _I'd like to say she was a refreshing breath of air, but, Beacon was full of questionable people._

 _Yang was no acceptation. In fact, she was quite unremarkable compared to Ruby. Although, it was equally argued that Yang had a level of maturity that many in Beacon could only hope for. She also had a genuine desire to soften that darker truths of the world with her unending levity. That didn't mean that Yang was always smiling, however._

 _Her temper promised otherwise more often than not. Yang had to put a great deal of effort into training her temperament, and that was no easy task._

 _Weiss and Yang didn't get along well at first, either._

 _If you were to ask either one of them the details, they would gloss over a great many stories. The truth is, yelling governed our dorm. At the time, Atlesian ideology reigned supreme for Weiss. Yang had no idea how to cope with that. I, as the token Faunus of the group, failed in my early duties, denying my heritage for a more human insight. I felt it would be best that way, hiding my ears, and my habitual Faunus customs._

 _I was wrong, I know that now._

 _I won't say that we should have chosen to handle ourselves better. Honestly, anything would have been more productive than the shouting matches. The discord that resulted from our bickering lasted days at a time on occasion. From the ashes of those fights, however, team RWBY emerged._

 _In our prime, we were fighting force that garnered a somewhat questionable, yet respected, reputation. We weren't quite a household name, but, we had the attention of our superiors, and that alone was enough for us. _I'd like to say that such a reputation carried over to our adult lives, but sadly, we had our moment of fame fade away from us more quickly than we would like.__

 _ _Harsh reality replaced it, scandal and paparazzi followed. We all handled that in our own way, some of us better than others.__

 _Yang became what you would call a jaded adult, and, much to my displeasure, that chord of cynicism runs through her entire being. She tries hard not to let it show. She does her best to be that supportive and uplifting person that we all know and love. Sadly, like all of us, Yang's been changed by time._

 _Leaving was the best thing that could have happened to her, it was her time to venture from my influence…I would have been remiss not to notice that._

 _Yatsuhashi is a placid man, quiet, but well meaning. That she's chosen to live at his side provides a valuable insight to the obvious emptiness our own social group offered her. Deep down, I wish she would have stayed. Selfishly, I think we all hoped she would have found meaning within these walls, and comfort in this household. I wanted her help me raise you. Deep down, I think her experiences would have been priceless to me in these trying times. Failing that, at least she would have instilled confidence in me where I have none._

 _Yang has always been good at that._

 _I hope the bonds you share with her will reflect the station she holds in all of our lives. I realize that might not be fair to ask. Not from her, and never from you. Still, I selfishly want that to be the case, all the same._

 _From your mother with love,  
Blake Belladonna._

* * *

The roar of the stadium filled her ears as she hobbled out of the massive metal doors and into her private area. Her arm was bloody, her aura having been shattered in a crushing defeat that would be talked about for months to come. Even so, her job was not to win, but to provide solid opening entertainment for the aspiring talent about to enter the ring. She smirked as Yatsuhashi was dragged in behind her by the medics, the man unable to walk on his own due to an injured ankle.

The non-lethal blows traded in the arena provided a level of skill and challenge that Yang hadn't experienced since her days in Beacon Academy, and she thrived off of the attention given to her by the shouting fans who followed every success and failure in the arena.

Although this match was lost, as the blood was rinsed off of the floor, the commentators were already showing the eager students about to partake on the Atlesian championships required to qualify for the much larger torments that would take place later that year. Wetting a towel, she pressed it to her injured arm, sopping away the blood, watching as it colored the towel irreparably.

"How bad is the sprain?" She asked, looking over her shoulder at the large man.

"It'll heal shortly." He said, already knowing his aura was hard at work. It was Yang's aura, or current lack of it, that concerned him. "You should bandage your arm properly, or it might scar."

At this Yang grinned. "This little thing? Nah, it's only a scratch."

The man rolls his eyes only slightly. "Stubborn." The murmured retort was enough for him to voice his annoyance. He didn't have nearly the explosive temperament that Yang had, but, she knew him well, and realized there were a great many complaints rolling around in his head.

"It's really not all that bad." She replied, lifting the towel and blotting away the last of the red trickles. "Never mind that, I forgot how hot it was under all of that lighting. I need a shower like you wouldn't believe."

Yatsuhashi gave her a long look of disbelief before flopping down the rest of the way onto the sofa like an exhausted fish. Yawning, he stared longingly at the bathroom, the shower simply too far away for his liking. When he glanced back to Yang, he was unsurprised to see her shucking off her clothes and tossing the sweaty garbs in the hamper. "I hope you do not expect me to stand on my own." He replied simply, flexing his swollen foot in attempt to make his aura work its magic faster.

Yang took one look at him and shook her head. "Well, no, but the bath is so damn small." Yang complained, realizing for not the first time that her boyfriend's massive size made it difficult to fit in most standard sizes of anything together. Sometimes, it was just impossible. "We're not going to both fit in that thing, but I agree, there's no way you're standing on slippery shower tiles right now."

"Or anything for that matter." He replied morosely.

Yang propped the bathroom door open with a chair, waking inside to run the bath, only to enter back into the room a moment later to help undressed and soak in the tub.

Also he never said it out loud, he sorely missed these moments of simple contact, the kind that often came before and after lovemaking, but never during it. He could count the number of times they had done it on one hand. Yet, now that they had crossed that line in their romantic life, he was quickly learning that Yang had an even greater sexual appetite than he first assumed. He wished he could say he felt the same, but, he would never feel quite the same hunger for lust as Yang would.

Although he could never make himself completely immune to her beauty, her body was not what he was most attracted to. Instead, it was her personality, her prowess in battle, and the dutiful way she always looked after others before herself. All in all, he found daily life wholly more enjoyable for Yang's presence in his life. He wished he could come up with more ways to repay Yang for that gift, often times coming up short.

However, there was one way he could indulge her, and he fully intended to do so.

As the blonde stepped behind the glass shower door to cleanse herself of her own sweat and grime, his eyes were glued to her. He didn't miss the small smirk on Yang's lips, or the obvious vanity she took in putting her body on display. Preening over the simple fact that she had managed to catch his eye. Yatsuhashi rarely stared at her for the sake of it, though in the moments he did, he couldn't deny that she was incredibly attractive. That Yang seemed to love his rare moments of truly gawking made her happiness all the sweeter.

Momentarily, he locked his eyes with her. Tilting his head and showing off a slight smile before reaching for his own bar of soap to wash away the grime of the arena.

* * *

"Damn it." Weiss muttered as she watched Yatsuhashi hobble off the arena floor with assistance. She knew that putting Yang into the arena would come with costs during the first few rotations. After all, she was no Pyrrha Nikos, who had been raised to be an arena spectacle. Yang was no showpiece, and like it or not, the blonde was an entirely offensive fighter. It would take years to cultivate a Yang's capabilities and brand appeal.

That wasn't to say that Weiss regretted her decision. No, in fact, she was quite sure she had made the correct one, even as Pyrrha winced at the footage.

"Well, it was quite a display." The redheaded woman replied diplomatically as she stood with her hands behind her back.

"At ease, Pyrrha." Weiss muttered for what seemed to be the thousandth time.

Pyrrha only slightly relaxed her stance, but it seemed near impossible to get her to do it completely.

Where Yang had been almost too lax at her job at times, and enjoyed taunting Weiss with reckless abandon at least weekly - if not daily - Pyrrha took to her new assignment with all of the severity of her huntress license. While the CEO of the Schnee Dust Company couldn't deny Pyrrha's effectiveness at running a tight and strict security force, she lacked the jovial idiocy the greased the tedium in the office. Without Yang around, the entire security force seemed stale, not to mention unenthusiastic.

It wasn't that they didn't like Pyrrha, but, that they weren't quite sure how to handle the orders she directed at them.

Weiss licked her lips, trying to think of some way to loosen Pyrrha up around the confines of the household. "Pyrrha…" Weiss said again as she turned off the television. "If I wanted a militant security staff, I would have asked Winter to come home…" Weiss hated to know that if she'd only ask, Winter would have walked away from the military without a second thought. "I asked you to take over for Yang, because I honestly feel that you can balance the idea of work and pleasure. I know it's difficult, but you have to find the moderation somewhere."

"To be honest, the security force, at least in my personal opinion, seem a little lethargic. Lacking in training, and quite frankly, in protocol."

"That's because Yang's protocol included faffing about until trouble came rearing its ugly head." Weiss explained, realizing the merit in Pyrrha's concerns. She had to agree, but had never once needed to doubt Yang's ability to take care of matters when she needed to. "You're right that my security team tends to be questionable. I won't argue that most of them would be fired for their conduct at other establishments, but Yang hired them for her own reasons. If you find particular members unsuitable to your needs, you can choose to terminate their contracts at any time. It's within your power to do so."

"Isn't that a bit extreme?"

"Perhaps, if I thought you were some sort of tyrant." Weiss replied. "However, I know you aren't. You wouldn't say anything at all, unless it truly bothered you. I run a business, not a charity. You're their immediate supervisor. If they fail to meet your expectations, for whatever reason, then you should find people who do."

"They're lazy, yes, but not incompetent." Pyrrha sighed. "Although I do wish they would stop ordering fast food from shady establishments down town."

"Blame Yang on that, she's instilled so many bad habits, I often question how that team could be any good at all." Weiss said offhandedly before she put down her paperwork to regard Pyrrha with an earnest expression. Folding her hands, and resting her elbows on the desk. "If it's any consolation, Yang wasn't really fit for the position. She had to grow into it, and even then, sometimes the results were not to my liking. However, if I didn't trust her completely, I would have never put her in charge of my safety, or the safety of my family. It's a challenge, and one I didn't hand down to you idly.


End file.
